London : Pakistan has hit back at United States claims that it could not be trusted with details of the raid that killed Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden on Sunday night in Abbotabad.
Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir told the BBC this view was "disquieting" and his country had a "pivotal role" in tackling terrorism. Earlier, CIA Director Leon Panetta said the US had not told Islamabad in advance about the raid for fear it would be jeopardized. Panetta told Time Magazine that Islamabad had not been informed because "Pakistanis could jeopardize the mission: they might alert thetargets".
In a BBC interview, Bashir said Panetta was entitled to his views but that his country had co-operatedextensively with the US. He said the compound in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was shot dead had been identified as suspicious some time ago by Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). But it took greater resources of CIA to determine that it was al-Qaeda leader's hiding place.
"Most of these things that have happened in terms of global anti-terror, Pakistan has played a pivotalrole," said Bashir. "So it's a little disquieting when we have comments like this."
The US has not commented on anyone it captured or had planned to capture, other than saying it had taken Bin Laden's body, which was buried at sea. However, Pakistan says that rest of Bin Laden's family are now "in safe hands and being looked after in accordance with the law". US officials are discussing how and when to release pictures of Bin Laden's body to counter conspiracyt heories that he did not die. Panetta said there was no question it would at some point be shown to the public. PPI
