Pak radars were 'inactive, not jammed' during US' Osama operation: Air chief

The entry of American helicopters into Pakistani air space for 'Operation Geronimo' went undetected because the radars deployed on the western borders were not active on May 2, the Pakistan Air Force has said.

Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed 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.
The PAF's Chief of Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Rao Qamar Suleman, accepted the responsibility of air surveillance failure, but dispelled the impression that the Pakistani radars had been jammed by Americans.
Suleman informed the government that the entry of US helicopters into the Pakistani air space was not detected, as the radars deployed on the western borders were inactive on that day, The News reports.
Suleman's statement is in direct contrast to what Pakistan Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir had said during a media briefing in Islamabad on May 5.
Talking about the violation of Pakistani territory by the United States while carrying out unilateral military operation against Bin Laden, the Foreign Secretary said that the Pakistani radars had been jammed during the raid. Our radars were jammed and civil and military leadership was not taken into confidence in the operation against Bin Laden. Osama has become a thing of the past, but if this kind of acts are repeated, then results can be devastating", Bashir said. (ANI)

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