ISLAMABAD :
Prime Minister Syed Yusuf Raza Gilani on Monday, while dispelling allegations of
complicity or incompetence on Pakistan’s security agencies said Inter Services
Intelligence (ISI) prosecuted the anti-terror strategy with a high degree of
professionalism and superb determination. Addressing the National
Assembly on Abbottabad incident, the Prime Minister in his policy statement
said, “Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd. We emphatically
reject such accusations.”The Prime Minister said,
“It is disingenuous for anyone to blame Pakistan or State institutions of
Pakistan including the ISI and the Armed Forces for being in cahoots with the
Al-Qaeda.”
He
sid it was Al-Qaeda and its affiliates that carried out hundreds of suicide
bombings in nearly every town and city of Pakistan and also targeted political
leaders, State institutions, the ISI and the General
Headquarters.
The Prime Minister said, “We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own shortcomings and errors of omission and commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan.”
Gilani said the issue of the hideout needs a rational answer, adding recrimination and misplaced rhetoric is self-defeating.
The Prime Minister however admitted that there has been an intelligence failure but added “it is not only ours but of all the intelligence agencies of the world.”
He said the Al-Qaeda chief along with other Al-Qaeda operators had managed to elude global intelligence agencies for a long time. He was constantly being tracked not only by the ISI but also by other intelligence agencies, he added.
The Prime Minister said, “It was the ISI that passed key leads to CIA that enabled the US intelligence to use superior technological assets and focus on the area in which Osama bin Laden was eventually found (here in Abbottabad).”
Gilani said, “In fact, for the first time, our Armed Forces were deployed in the Tirah Valley to form a security cordon to interdict Al-Qaeda during the Tora Bora bombings.”
He said in that operation, 248 Al-Qaeda members were captured by Armed Forces of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister further said, some 40 of the key Al-Qaeda operatives including Chief Operation Officer Faraj Al Libbi and Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the master planner of 9/11, were captured by the ISI.
He said, “No other country in the world and no other security agency has done so much to interdict Al-Qaeda than the ISI and our Armed Forces.
The Prime Minister said, “Let me also affirm the Government’s full confidence in the high command of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Inter Services Intelligence.”
He said indeed the ISI, is a national asset and has the full support of the Government.
“We are proud of its considerable accomplishments in the anti-terror campaign,” he added. APP
The Prime Minister said, “We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own shortcomings and errors of omission and commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan.”
Gilani said the issue of the hideout needs a rational answer, adding recrimination and misplaced rhetoric is self-defeating.
The Prime Minister however admitted that there has been an intelligence failure but added “it is not only ours but of all the intelligence agencies of the world.”
He said the Al-Qaeda chief along with other Al-Qaeda operators had managed to elude global intelligence agencies for a long time. He was constantly being tracked not only by the ISI but also by other intelligence agencies, he added.
The Prime Minister said, “It was the ISI that passed key leads to CIA that enabled the US intelligence to use superior technological assets and focus on the area in which Osama bin Laden was eventually found (here in Abbottabad).”
Gilani said, “In fact, for the first time, our Armed Forces were deployed in the Tirah Valley to form a security cordon to interdict Al-Qaeda during the Tora Bora bombings.”
He said in that operation, 248 Al-Qaeda members were captured by Armed Forces of Pakistan.
The Prime Minister further said, some 40 of the key Al-Qaeda operatives including Chief Operation Officer Faraj Al Libbi and Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, the master planner of 9/11, were captured by the ISI.
He said, “No other country in the world and no other security agency has done so much to interdict Al-Qaeda than the ISI and our Armed Forces.
The Prime Minister said, “Let me also affirm the Government’s full confidence in the high command of the Pakistan Armed Forces and the Inter Services Intelligence.”
He said indeed the ISI, is a national asset and has the full support of the Government.
“We are proud of its considerable accomplishments in the anti-terror campaign,” he added. APP
