Former president Pervez Musharraf insisted Thursday that Pakistan
did not provide assistance to Osama bin Laden as he renewed criticism
of the US raid that killed the world's most wanted man.
On a
visit to Washington, Musharraf staunchly defended Pakistan's military
and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) service which have long come
under US suspicion over their relationships with Islamic militants.
The
former army chief, who seized power in a 1999 coup, said he would have
known about assistance to bin Laden who apparently moved into a house
in the garrison town of Abbottabad during Musharraf's presidency.
"I
confidently and surely say that it was not complicity because I am very
aware of one thing -- that I didn't know, whether one believes it or
not," said Musharraf, who lives in self-imposed exile in London.
"Is
it possible that the army and the ISI were hiding from me? No 100 times
-- not at all, not possible. Because I am from the army -- they are my
people," he said at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for
Scholars.
Musharraf described bin Laden's hideout as "a normal,
slightly on the large side, house" and said it would not have naturally
attracted suspicion.
"There are hundreds of houses available all
over. If he was to be put there, wouldn't there be some guards and some
security that he doesn't leave the place," Musharraf said.
Musharraf
said that the May 2 raid worsened Pakistani images of the United States
as people saw it as a "violation of our sovereignty."
The United
States recently suspended around a third of its security assistance to
Pakistan as it presses for more action against Islamic militants.
Pakistan
recently threw out US trainers and Washington has been worried about
the military's ties with Afghanistan's Taliban and anti-Indian groups
such as Lashkar-e-Taiba which allegedly planned the 2008 Mumbai attacks.
"While
I cannot rule out for sure that there is not one element who may be
sympathetic to the Taliban, I am very sure that the general direction
of ISI and the military is very positive," Musharraf said. AFP
