Former chief of Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lt-General (retd) Asad Durrani has said that Pakistan may have exchanged the whereabouts of former al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden to the US in exchange for an agreement on ‘how to bring the Afghan problem to an end’.
In an interview to the Al Jazeera channel, Durrani expressed doubt on ISI’s official line that it had been unaware of Bin Laden’s whereabouts until his death. He said that it was ‘most likely’ that Pakistan knew about the al Qaeda chief’s location in the country and intended to reveal it to US ‘at the right time’ in a ‘quid pro quo’ deal.
“I cannot say exactly what happened but my assessment […] was it is quite possible that they [the ISI] did not know but it was more probable that they did. And the idea was that at the right time, his location would be revealed. And the right time would have been, when you can get the necessary quid pro quo – if you have someone like Osama bin Laden, you are not going to simply hand him over to the United States,” a report on Al Jazeera website quoted him as saying.
When asked by the interviewer if the Abbottabad compound, raided by the US in May 2011, was an ISI safe-house, the former intelligence chief said, ” “If ISI was doing that, then I would say they were doing a good job. And if they revealed his location, they again probably did what was required to be done.”
Duranni further said that the charge on the military and government for “gross incompetence”, for failing to detect the Al Qaeda chief’s presence in Pakistan and the following US mission in 2011, by the Abbottabad commission, was based on ‘political reasons’.
“The admission of incompetence was probably done on political reasons… As far as the people of Pakistan were concerned, it was going to be very uncomfortable for them that their government, you know, is in cahoots now with the United States and gets hold of Osama bin Laden,” he said.
The former ISI chief added that the comments were his personal opinion and that he did not know what had happened.
The full interview will air in April 2015.
Shame on you Pakistan today for not publishing comments, what are you scared of?
Pakistan Today is not a newspaper but a Cheap CHEETHRA for sale and earning wages. It repeats news columns for week except a bold column by Hamayun Gauhar. Arif is for sale at a discount price and seems to have no morals and intellectual ethics. Basking for comments and not printing is to hide the partisan side of his policy. GOOD LUCK ARIF- YOr're true to your family heritage.
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