New Delhi, September 07: Osama’s Pakistan connection was exposed again following the revelation of a former ISI official. He helped former Pakistan prime minister Nawaz Sharif to get aid from Saudi Arabia.
Khalid Khwaja, a former ISI official, told an Indian news agency that Osama and Sharif met at least five times and introduced the latter to the Saudi royal family.
The latest revelation exposed Pakistan’s close connections with the world’s most dreaded terrorist organisation, Al Qaeda.
A can of worms was opened by Khwaja’s startling statements. He claimed that during his tenure as prime minister in the nineties Sharif asked Osama to help Pakistani people get jobs in Saudi Arabia. Sharif also wanted Osama to invest in development projects in Pakistan.
The relations between the two grew when Sharif visited Saudi Arabia as the Pak PM. Until his visit, Sharif was not close to any of the Saudi royals. Sharif’s five consecutive meetings with Osama in Saudi Arabia was the beginning of Osma’s Pakistan connection.
Khwaja said, “A close aide of Sharif family and I arranged at least five meetings between Sharif and bin Laden in Saudi Arabia. During a meeting with bin Laden as prime minister in the 1990s, Sharif asked him to provide employment to Pakistanis in Saudi Arabia and undertake development projects in Pakistan.”
—Agencies