CNN-IBN on Tuesday repeatedly showed short clips of the interview, which shows Mukhtar agreeing to the idea that Pakistan’s top civilian and military leadership may have known about Osama’s presence in Pakistan.
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Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar, who was the minister between 2008 and 2012, told the Indian TV station CNN-IBN that the Pakistani military knew Bin Laden was in the country at the time of his death in 2011. He was later killed along with one of his brothers, a courier and two more by American Navy Seal Commandos, in a confidential operation which lasted for almost 3 hours, on 2 May, 2011 at his fortress in Abbottabad, which a military town near Islamabad.
“Since the OBL episode, senior United States officials and leaders have on a number of occasions stated on record that they have seen no intelligence linking the government of Pakistan and any of its agencies with Osama’s presence in Abbottabad”, a spokesperson for the Pakistan Embassy in Washington had said at the time.
Question: Did this word spread above in the chain of command, did the President know about it, did the Prime Minister know about it?
“The individuals such because the President of Pakistan, the Army Chief, the Joint Chief of Staff and the company individuals, who have been half and parcel of the entire motion, have been all activated they usually have been all ready for orders for them to return out with their groups and supply all the knowledge which they need to have carried out earlier”, stated Ahmad Mukthar.
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Mukhtar further added “Some people knew, people in the Pakistan Army as well as people in the other forces they also knew it and they were on the lookout for somebody of the stature of Osama Bin Laden”. The true admittance of former Pakistani minister of that timethat his government knew of the presence of Osama Bin Laden on Pakistani soil. So I am clear there is no complicity. It is widely acknowledged that the Saudi-born fugitive had been living in Pakistan for more than nine years before he was killed. They try suicide. They would try to complete off their our bodies by simply killing themselves. “Nobody knew Osama lived in Pakistan”, Malik said.
