Skip to: Content
Skip to: Site Navigation
Skip to: Search

  • Advertisements

Terrorism & Security

Pakistan defends its terror record, warns US against future raids

In the wake of Osama bin Laden's killing, Pakistan is defending itself against accusations that it was complicit in hiding the Al Qaeda leader.

By Correspondent / May 4, 2011

In this May 3 photo, media and local residents gather outside the house where Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed, in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Anjum Naveed/AP

Enlarge

• A daily summary of global reports on security issues.

Skip to next paragraph

Recent posts

The killing of Osama bin Laden is adding fuel to the argument between Washington and Islamabad over whether Pakistan is doing enough to fight terror within its borders.

Despite initial comments that the operation was a "joint partnership," the US has since announced that Pakistan was not involved, nor privy to prior knowledge about the raid.

The fact that Washington acted unilaterally could increase anti-US sentiment among Pakistanis, many who are already angry over covert US operations and drone attacks.

On Tuesday, the Pakistani government called the bin Laden operation an "unauthorized unilateral action" and warned it "would not serve as a future precedent for any state, including the US."

The discovery that bin Laden was hiding in a city filled with military personnel has led to accusations that Pakistani intelligence was lax in its efforts to find bin Laden. Some Pakistan detractors have gone as far as accusing Pakistan's version of the CIA, Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), of keeping him hidden.

In a column published in the Washington Post Monday, President Asif Ali Zardari launched an early defense against such accusations, even before many of the charges surfaced:

Some in the US press have suggested that Pakistan lacked vitality in its pursuit of terrorism, or worse yet that we were disingenuous and actually protected the terrorists we claimed to be pursuing. Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn’t reflect fact.

Pakistan's Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Wednesday said that Pakistan had informed the US of its suspicions about a compound in Abbottabad in 2009, according to Pakistani newspaper the Dawn.

E-mail Permissions

Read Comments

View reader comments | Comment on this story

Photos of the day

05.29.12 »

What happens when ordinary people decide to pay it forward? Extraordinary change. See how individuals are making a difference...

Mae Azango has gone undercover to report on female circumcision, a rite of the Sande society in Liberia that is performed on young girls.

Mae Azango exposed a secret ritual in Liberia, putting her life in danger

When journalist Mae Azango wrote about a secret women's circumcision ritual in Liberia, she received death threats.

Become a fan! Follow us! YouTube Link up with us! See our feeds!