For the first time since the May 2 raid, Pakistan has officially
acknowledged that there was a local support group, most probably from
al-Qaeda and its affiliates, that helped Osama bin Laden stay in
Abbottabad undetected for five years.
The confession comes at a time when the US government has given a clean
chit to Pakistan’s leadership, saying that there was “absolutely no
evidence that anyone at the highest levels of the Pakistani Government
knew” that bin Laden was living just 50 kilometres northeast of
Islamabad.
The Saudi-born terrorist, who had evaded capture for a decade, was
killed on May 2 in a top-secret operation involving a small team of US
Special Forces in Abbottabad.
“I would again like to recall that Secretary Clinton said that the US
has absolutely no reason to believe that anyone at the highest levels
of Government knew about Osama and that there was an investigation
being carried out to find out the facts,” Foreign Office spokeswoman
Tehmina Janjua said during a press briefing.
“Obviously, everyone in Pakistan is also interested to know the answer
to that question. The answer we will be through the investigation that
is being carried out. Obviously, there must have been a local support
group, presumably consisting of Al-Qaeda and its affiliates for Bin
Laden. This is common sense. The ongoing investigations hopefully will
bare the truth,” she added.
However, Janjua refused to get into the details of a ‘most wanted
terrorists’ list handed over by the United States to Pakistan,
expecting it to provide intelligence about them immediately and
possibly target them in joint operations.
When asked about the list of five militant Islamic leaders, she said:
“These are operational details that I will not go into at this point
nor would I venture into the media speculation on it. What we need to
focus on the larger picture and to ensure that the Pakistan-US
relationship remains on track especially in the context of fighting
terrorism and on matters of regional stability.” (ANI)
