ISLAMABAD – Pakistan on Tuesday denied any prior knowledge of the
U.S. raid that killed Osama bin Laden, but said it had been sharing information
about the targeted compound with the CIA since 2009.
The al Qaeda leader was shot dead by U.S. Special Forces in an attack on a
sprawling compound near a military academy in the northwestern town of
Abbottabad early on Monday.
"Neither any base nor facility inside Pakistan was used by the U.S. forces,
nor the Pakistan Army provided any operational or logistic assistance to these
operations conducted by the U.S. forces," the foreign ministry said in a lengthy
statement.
While Islamabad hailed the killing of bin Laden as an important milestone in
the fight against terrorism, the statement said Pakistan had expressed "deep
concerns" that the operation was carried out without informing it in
advance.
"This event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule," the
ministry said.
According to the statement, U.S. helicopters entered Pakistani airspace by
making use of "blind spots" in the radar coverage caused by the hilly terrain
surrounding Abbottabad.
The foreign ministry said the Pakistani air force scrambled its jets within
minutes of being informed of the U.S. operation but there was no engagement with
the U.S. forces as they had already left Pakistani airspace.
It said Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) spy agency had been
sharing information about the compound with the CIA and other friendly
intelligence agencies since 2009 and had continued to do so until mid-April.
"It is important to highlight that taking advantage of much superior and
technological assets, CIA exploited the intelligence leads given by us to
identify and reach Osama bin Laden." Reuters
