Islamabad, May 03: Pakistan Tuesday described as “absolutely false” reports that US helicopters had taken off from its Ghazi airbase and expressed its “deep concerns and reservations” about the US not informing or seeking authorisation before the strike in Abbottabad that killed Osama bin Laden.
In a press statement, a day after Osama was killed in a US operation in Abbottabad near this capital, the Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement: “…the Government of Pakistan expresses its deep concerns and reservations on the manner in which the Government of the United States carried out this operation without prior information or authorization from the Government of Pakistan.”
“This event of unauthorized unilateral action cannot be taken as a rule,” it added.
While recognising that the death of the Al Qaeda chief was an important milestone in the fight against terror, the statement said that the government categorically denied media reports suggesting that the Pakistani leadership “civil as well as military, had any prior knowledge of the US operation against Osama bin Ladin carried out in the early hours of 2nd May 2011”.
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), it added, had “exploited the intelligence leads given by us to identify and reach Osama bin Ladin, a fact also acknowledged by the US President and Secretary of State, in their statements”.
“Reports about US helicopters taking off from Ghazi Airbase are absolutely false and incorrect. Neither any base or facility inside Pakistan was used by the US Forces, nor Pakistan Army provided any operational or logistic assistance to these operations conducted by the US Forces.”
According to the statement, US helicopters entered Pakistani airspace making use of blind spots in the radar coverage due to the hilly terrain.
“On receipt of information regarding the incident, PAF scrambled its jets within minutes. This has been corroborated by the White House Advisor Mr John Brennan who while replying to a question said, “We didn’t contact the Pakistanis until after all of our people, all of our aircraft were out of Pakistani airspace…”
According to the Pakistan Foreign Office, high walled mansions such as the one in which Osama was found were “not a rarity”.
“There has been a lot of discussion about the nature of the targeted compound, particularly its high walls and its vicinity to the areas housing Pakistan Army elements. It needs to be appreciated that many houses occupied by the affectees of operations in FATA/KPK, have high boundary walls, in line with their culture of privacy and security. Houses with such layout and structural details are not a rarity.”
Osama’s family members, it said, were in safe hands and being looked after “in accordance with law”.
“Some of them needing medical care are under treatment in the best possible facilities. As per policy, they will be handed over to their countries of origin.”
Stressing that the government and the armed forces consider the support of the people to be its mainstay, the statement declared that it would continue the fight against terrorism and said: “Most of the successes achieved by the US and some other friendly countries have been the result of effective intelligence cooperation and extremely useful military support by Pakistan.”
–Agencies