ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Monday rejected media reports that its spy
agency allowed Chinese engineers to examine a US helicopter that
crashed during the operation to kill Osama bin Laden in May.
The
Financial Times cited unnamed US intelligence sources saying that
Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence had allowed Chinese experts to
take photographs of the wreckage and samples of its outer skin which
was designed to evade radars.
’The report is totally baseless
and we strongly reject it,’ army spokesman Major General Athar Abbas
was quoted as saying by DPA. ’These reports are part of campaign by US
media to malign the armed forces of Pakistan.’
The New York Times published a similar report.
One
of the modified Black Hawk helicopters crashed during the midnight raid
by Navy Seals to kill the al-Qaeda chief in Abbotabad, 61 kilometers
north-east of capital Islamabad.
Pakistan was stunned by the
raid as its air force and army failed to detect the entry of aircraft
from Afghanistan deep inside its territory, complete the mission and
fly back unnoticed.
The US commandos exploded the copter which
had crashed into the outer high wall of bin Laden’s compound as they
left hastily after the operation but they failed to destroy its tail,
which had fallen outside the wall.
Pakistan had hinted that
Chinese were interested in the copter after a picture of the tail was
widely circulated on the internet.
’But people close to the
White House and the Central Intelligence Agency have told the FT that
the Chinese were in fact given access to the helicopter,’ the Financial
Times said.
Pakistan later returned the wreckage to the United
States after Senator John Kerry visited Islamabad as part of efforts to
cool tempers.
The report of Chinese access comes as Pakistan
and US are trying to improve relations badly damaged by the covert
operation, and it could increase the mistrust between two sides. Online
