WASHINGTON-
United States on Friday ruled out the impression that Pakistani government knew about the whereabouts of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before he was killed in a May 2011 American operation in the garrison town of Abbottabad.
“As we’ve stated in the past and President (Obama) and (former) Secretary (of State) Clinton at the time stated, we don’t have any reason to believe that the Government of Pakistan knew about the location of bin Laden. That remains our belief,” State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said Friday.
She added that the US had already rejected as entirely wrong a conjecture projected by former Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) chief Lt General (retd) Asad Durrani.
Durrani, in a recent interview to Al Jazeera news channel, had claimed that Pakistan was likely aware of bin Laden’s location before the US Navy SEALS carried out the operation on May 1, 2011.
Responding to a question at the daily briefing, Psaki said the US had no plans to reach Durrani, who served as ISI director general more than two decades ago between 1990 and 92.
“Correct” was Psaki’s categorical reply, when she was asked if what Durrani asserted in the interview is entirely wrong.
