Osama’s presence in Pakistan raises serious questions

Osama bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan and his killing in an operation conducted by US forces with the help of CIA officials some 300 meters close to the Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul, rubbished the claims of top Pakistani leaders that the most wanted man was not present in Pakistan when they suggested that he was either dead or had run away to some other part of the world.
None of the presidents or the prime ministers of Pakistan since the 9/11 publicly admitted that Osama was residing in Pakistan, a fact confirmed by US President Barack Obama, leaving a big question mark on the credibility the of political leaders and the capability of the intelligence agencies of the country.
In an interview to BBC in September 2009, President Asif Zardari had said he thought Osama was dead. On May 11, 2009, Zardari told NBC that the world’s most wanted terrorist was “not alive”. “I’ve said earlier that he (Osama) – I don’t think he’s alive,” Zardari told said. On April 27, 2009, Zardari said the whereabouts of the Al Qaeda leader remained a mystery and there was a suspicion that he could be dead.
On July 20, 2010, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani categorically stated that neither Mullah Omar nor Osama bin Laden was in Pakistan asking that if anyone had credible and verifiable information about them, it should be shared. Gilani told reporters that bin Laden was not included in the agenda of the meeting with US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.
Just a day earlier, Clinton, in a television interview, had said she believed bin Laden was still in Pakistan. On April 13, 2010, the prime minister claimed that the world’s most wanted terrorist was not in Pakistan. “He is certainly not in Pakistan,” Gilani told CNN. On December 3, 2009, Gilani claimed that bin Laden was not in Pakistan – just days after Gordon Brown criticised Islamabad for not doing enough to capture the Al Qaeda leader.
“Pakistan is not specifically looking for Osama bin Laden, as there is no proof he is in Pakistan,” then president Pervez Musharraf had said in an interview in January 2008 with CBS television.On December 16, 2007, Musharraf said the Al Qaeda chief could be in one of the agencies in FATA. “Osama could be in Bajaur, the tribal agency bordering Kunar province,” he said in an interview.
Musharraf admitted on September 21, 2003 that Laden might be flitting back and forth along the porous Pakistani border, but insisted that his army was doing everything in its power to track him down. Immediately after the US attacked Afghanistan, Musharraf had said on November 24, 2001 that he did not believe that bin Laden had slipped into Pakistan.
“To the best of my knowledge, Osama has not crossed into Pakistan and I don’t know about his whereabouts,” Musharraf told reporters after a meeting with a European Union delegation.