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Imran Khan referred to Bin Laden during a speech in the National Assembly on Thursday
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has come under fire from opposition parliamentarians after telling parliament that the United States “martyred” Osama Bin Laden.
Bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11 attacks, was killed in 2011 when US special forces raided his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
Pakistan was not informed in advance.
“I will never forget how we Pakistanis were ashamed when the Americans came to Abbottabad and killed Osama Bin Laden, martyred him,” said Khan.
Khan used the word “shaheed”, a reverent Arabic term for a martyr to Islam.
Opposition leader and former foreign minister Khawaja Asif criticized Khan and called Bin Laden a “supreme terrorist”.
“He destroyed my nation, and [Khan] He calls him a martyr, “Asif said in parliament.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose Pakistan People’s Party was in power when Bin Laden was assassinated, accused the prime minister of appeasing violent extremism.
Meena Gabeena, a high-profile Pakistani activist, wrote on Twitter: “Muslims around the world are fighting because of the discrimination they face due to recent terrorism and our Prime Minister makes it worse by calling [Osama Bin Laden] Martyr of Islam! ”
Khan’s speech came when Pakistan’s foreign affairs office rejected a report by the US State Department accusing Pakistan of continuing to be a safe haven for terrorist groups focused on the region.
“While the report acknowledges that Al Qaeda has been seriously degraded in the region, it does not mention Pakistan’s crucial role in decimating Al Qaeda, thus lessening the threat that the terrorist group once posed to the world,” said the Ministry of External relationships.
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Osama bin Laden was killed in a 2011 US raid in Pakistan
Khan, a former cricket player, has previously been criticized for sympathizing with the Taliban, and opponents have called him a “Taliban Khan.”
Following his controversial comment by Bin Laden on Thursday, Afrasiab Khatak, a former nationalist senator and former head of the Pakistan Independent Human Rights Commission (HRCP), said in a tweet that the prime minister had come to power to implement the “Project Taliban. ” .
In a television interview four years ago, Khan refused to call Bin Laden a terrorist when the interviewer pressured him.
Analysis: M Ilyas Khan, BBC News, Islamabad
Imran Khan called Osama Bin Laden a martyr not because of his ideological commitment to the 9/11 mastermind, but because he was politically expedient.
The world has come a long way since the politics of September 11, but analysts still view Islamist militancy as the primary weapon of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment to advance its perceived goals in India and Afghanistan.
Bin Laden and other high-ranking al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders of the time are still revered by militants, and function as useful tools to recruit people for the cause. Any move to officially downgrade the state of Bin Laden, therefore, could backfire.
His critics consider Khan to be close to the military establishment, a representative who has been catapulted into power in a 2018 election allegedly manipulated by the military.
His choice of words on Thursday was not an accident. Many noted that during his speech he initially used the word “murdered” for Bin Laden, then stopped and corrected him to “martyred”.
