Pakistan believes official US reports that terror mastermind Osama bin Laden was killed in a military operation launched by elite US troops last week are correct but it doubts that his body had been dumped into the sea, the country’s interior minister was quoted on Monday as saying.
Rehman Malik said Washington had not informed Islamabad about its intention to launch that operation in northwest Pakistan, adding that he learned about it only 15 minutes after it ended.
In an interview with the Saudi Arabic language daily Okaz during a visit to the Gulf Kingdom on Sunday, Malik said Pakistan had obtained what he described as significant information from bin Laden’s wife but would not make it public now.
“The US carried out that operation without consulting with us or even seeking our opinion…I only learned about the operation 15 minutes later…we were first told about the crash of a helicopter in that area…it emerged later that the target was Osama bin Laden…our security people went to that place and found that it was already done…we regret that they carried out this operation on our land as a result of a failure in their intelligence before,” he said.
“We must understand that this failure is not on the part of Pakistan but occurred during the 2001 September attacks which took place despite all US preparations…as for bin Laden’s death, we believe that what the US has announced is real…regarding what they said that they dumped his body in the sea, we are not sure about it.”
President Barak Omaba announced last week that US special forces launched a helicopter-borne assault on a closely guarded compound in Abbottabad, 30 miles north-east of Islamabad.
Bin Laden resisted the attackers and was killed along with three other men in a firefight last Sunday night. The operation lasted 40 minutes and the dead included Bin Laden's most trusted courier, who carried his messages to the outside world, and one of Bin Laden's sons, according to US reports.
US forces "took custody" of Bin Laden's body, Obama said in a televised statement from the White House. A US official said Bin Laden had been buried at sea. Senior administration officials said the body would be handled according to Islamic practice and tradition. That practice calls for burial within 24 hours.
“What happened was that a US force backed by aircraft carried out a secret operation without the knowledge of Pakistani authorities…the Pakistani intelligence had managed to trace a phone number believed to be for bin Laden….we then traced some calls and passed them to the US intelligence,” Malik said.
“They then carried out the operation without informing us…according to our information, one of bin Laden’s sons was killed while we have obtained significant information from bin Laden’s wife…we think it is not convenient now to publicize this information.”
Asked if Pakistan would release results of investigation of bin Laden’s family, he said:”The investigations are under way and we will announce them if they serve the public interests…history will speak out later so the world will know the truth without any forfeitures.”
Malik said it was too early to talk about the handover of bin Laden’s family to any other party but added without elaborating:”Of course we have no intention at all to hand them over to the devil.”
He said he does not expect a decline in bin Laden’s Al Qaeda’s terror activities after the death of its leader.
“I don’t think so….Al Qaeda will not end but full cooperation among all countries and timely passing of intelligence information are the best means to combat terrorism… as for our ties with the US, Pakistan has always been an ally of the Americans in the fight against terrorism and we have provided valuable information to them over the past years….we want this cooperation to continue because the war in Pakistan is actually a war on terror and without cooperation by all, this war will be futile.”
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