Pakistan denies complicity over bin Laden case
Source: Agencies |
May 10, 2011, Tuesday
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Print Edition
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PAKISTAN Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani yesterday rejected allegations that the killing of Osama bin Laden by United States troops in his country showed Pakistani incompetence or complicity in hiding the al-Qaida leader.
Pakistan welcomed the death of bin Laden as a step in the fight against terror but also complained the raid was a violation of its sovereignty.
The fact that bin Laden was found hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad, 50 kilometers from the capital, Islamabad, has led to accusations that Pakistani security agencies were either incompetent or sheltering the world's most wanted man.
"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," Gilani said in a televised address to Parliament, adding that it was disingenuous for anyone to accuse Pakistan, including its spy agency, of "being in cahoots" with the al-Qaida network.
The US raid has added to strains in ties between Islamabad and Washington, which are crucial to combat Islamist militants and to bring stability to Afghanistan.
High importance
Gilani warned that unilateral actions such as the US Navy SEALs swoop on bin Laden's hideout ran the risk of serious consequences, but he added that Pakistan attached high importance to its relations with the US.
Pakistan's main opposition party has called on Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to resign over the breach of sovereignty by US special forces who slipped in from Afghanistan to storm the compound where bin Laden was hiding.
Pakistani-US relations were already fragile after a string of diplomatic disputes over issues including a big attack by a US drone aircraft in March and Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore in January.
Potentially stirring tension further, a Pakistani TV channel and a newspaper published what they said was the name of the undercover CIA station chief in Islamabad.
The US Embassy declined to comment, but said no one of that name worked at the mission in Pakistan.
Support network
US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that bin Laden likely had "some sort" of a support network inside Pakistan, but it would take investigations by Pakistan and the US to find out the nature of that support.
Some members of Congress have called for a cessation of US aid to Pakistan, at least until it becomes clear what role, if any, the government played in bin Laden's ability to avoid detection.
But Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "Everybody has to understand that even in the getting of Osama bin Laden, the Pakistanis were helpful. We have people on the ground in Pakistan because they allow us to have them."
"We actually worked with them on certain parts of the intelligence that helped to lead to him, and they have been extraordinarily cooperative and at some political cost to them in helping us to take out 16 of the top 20 al-Qaida leaders with a drone program that we have in the western part of the country," he said.
The senior Republican on the committee, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, said: "Pakistan is a critical factor in the war against terror."
Pakistan welcomed the death of bin Laden as a step in the fight against terror but also complained the raid was a violation of its sovereignty.
The fact that bin Laden was found hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad, 50 kilometers from the capital, Islamabad, has led to accusations that Pakistani security agencies were either incompetent or sheltering the world's most wanted man.
"Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd," Gilani said in a televised address to Parliament, adding that it was disingenuous for anyone to accuse Pakistan, including its spy agency, of "being in cahoots" with the al-Qaida network.
The US raid has added to strains in ties between Islamabad and Washington, which are crucial to combat Islamist militants and to bring stability to Afghanistan.
High importance
Gilani warned that unilateral actions such as the US Navy SEALs swoop on bin Laden's hideout ran the risk of serious consequences, but he added that Pakistan attached high importance to its relations with the US.
Pakistan's main opposition party has called on Gilani and President Asif Ali Zardari to resign over the breach of sovereignty by US special forces who slipped in from Afghanistan to storm the compound where bin Laden was hiding.
Pakistani-US relations were already fragile after a string of diplomatic disputes over issues including a big attack by a US drone aircraft in March and Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore in January.
Potentially stirring tension further, a Pakistani TV channel and a newspaper published what they said was the name of the undercover CIA station chief in Islamabad.
The US Embassy declined to comment, but said no one of that name worked at the mission in Pakistan.
Support network
US President Barack Obama said on Sunday that bin Laden likely had "some sort" of a support network inside Pakistan, but it would take investigations by Pakistan and the US to find out the nature of that support.
Some members of Congress have called for a cessation of US aid to Pakistan, at least until it becomes clear what role, if any, the government played in bin Laden's ability to avoid detection.
But Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said: "Everybody has to understand that even in the getting of Osama bin Laden, the Pakistanis were helpful. We have people on the ground in Pakistan because they allow us to have them."
"We actually worked with them on certain parts of the intelligence that helped to lead to him, and they have been extraordinarily cooperative and at some political cost to them in helping us to take out 16 of the top 20 al-Qaida leaders with a drone program that we have in the western part of the country," he said.
The senior Republican on the committee, Senator Richard Lugar of Indiana, said: "Pakistan is a critical factor in the war against terror."
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