Islamabad : Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Director General Lieutenant General Ahmad Shuja Pasha has informed Pakistan’s parliament that the United States had used stealth technology during its unilateral military operation against al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden inside Pakistani territory.
The Saudi-born terrorist, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed Sunday night in a top secret operation involving a small team of US Special Forces in Abbottabad city, located 50 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometres east of Peshawar.
An in-camera session of the joint sitting of the parliament was summoned on Friday after the Pakistani intelligence agencies were criticised for their failure to know about the presence of the world’s most wanted terrorist near Pakistan's elite military academy for years.
The military and the spy agencies also came under fire for their failure to detect the US army helicopters, which intruded into Pakistani territory and conducted nearly a one-hour operation to kill the al-Qaida leader.
"It was due to the US technological superiority that they managed to get in undetected," Xinhua quoted the ISI chief, as telling the parliament, according to Information Ministry officials.
The officials also quoted Pasha as telling the parliament that the armed US aircraft were ready to react to any Pakistani reaction.
He presented himself for full accountability before any forum, and said that if there was any " negligence or intentional failure", he was ready to face the consequences, said the report.
The ISI chief offered his resignation during the in-camera session after he briefed the lawmakers about the US operation, adding that he was ready to face any commission of inquiry about the American raid.
Pasha, however, said that it was also the responsibility of the provincial government, the local police and related agencies to have information about bin Laden's hideout in Abbotabad. ANI
