Delhi: Pakistan National Security Advisor Sartaj Aziz has sought an explanation from former Pakistani defence minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar comments that country’s top leadership knew about the presence of Osama bin Laden on their soil.
As per CNN IBN, former Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif are disturbed by Chaudhry’s remarks.
Also, an inquiry has been ordered against him.
Also Read: Pakistan’s lie exposed! Leaders knew Osama bin Laden was living in Abbottabad
At the same time the report said that former interior minister Rehman Malik has claimed that Mukhtar was not a defence minister and categorically stated that nobody knew that al Qaeda chief lived in Pakistan.
Malik added that Chaudhry may not have understood the Indian journalist’s questions and that the language may also have acted as a barrier.
Former defence minister of Pakistan revealed in an interview to CNN IBN that the Pakistani Army and the ISI had prior knowledge of Osama living on their soil.
Mukthar, who was the defence minister of Pakistan between 2008 and 2012 and was part of the top five ministers in the then PM Yousaf Raza Gilani’s government, replied in the affirmative when asked if President Zardari, General Kayani, the then Army Chief had prior information about Osama.
Chaudhary, a long time member of the Pakistan People’s Party, had added that some personnel in the Pakistan Army as well as people in the other forces were on the lookout for somebody of the stature of Osama.
However, after Osama’s killing, Rehman Malik, the then interior minister had on May 10, 2011 denied any role or any assistance from any Pakistani official or establishment and had said that the world’s most wanted could not be identified because of the way he had hid himself.
Osama, who was staying in a fortified compound in Abbottabad, a small military town less than a 100 kilometres from Pakistan’s capital Islamabad, was killed in an operation on the intervening night of May 01 and 02 by the commandos of US Navy Seals Team 6.
They had flown in from Afghanistan on two Black Hawks and the whole operation lasted a little over three hours.
Later US President Barack Obama broke the story to the world in a late night press conference and confirmed that the leader of al Qaeda had been killed in an operation carried out by them.
PTI