ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was criticized by opposition lawmakers after delivering a speech to Parliament in which he said Osama bin Laden had been “martyred” by the United States when he killed the mastermind of the attacks of September 11, 2011..
Mr. Khan was reprimanded for his comments, which included jokes in the United States, and for the reverence he showed Bin Laden for suggesting that he was a martyr, a term of veneration in Islam used to describe the dead who defend the faith.
“We sided with the United States in the war on terror, but they came here and killed him, martyred him,” Khan said in Thursday’s speech.
At first, the prime minister said that Bin Laden was simply “killed” by the Americans, but quickly corrected himself to say that the al-Qaeda leader was “martyred.”
The Americans, he added, “used abusive language against us” and further insulted Pakistan by failing to inform the country that they intended to enter the country to kill Bin Laden.
Pakistan, an unfriendly but important ally of the United States, has insisted that it did not know that Bin Laden was hiding in the northern city of Abbottabad, but US officials have long accused the country’s powerful army of providing a safe haven. for the militants.
Critics of Mr. Khan in the National Assembly were quick to condemn the prime minister, who was already under fire for his handling of the coronavirus pandemic and a slumping economy.
“Bin Laden brought terrorism to our lands, he was a terrorist from start to finish,” said Khawaja Muhammad Asif, an opposition leader.
On Twitter, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, president of the opposition Pakistan People’s Party, said Khan had “a history of appeasing violent extremism.”
Mr. Khan, a former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, reinvented himself as a religious conservative when he entered politics.
Many Pakistanis continue to support Bin Laden, and some religious leaders speak of the Qaeda leader in glorious terms. Mr. Khan has capitalized on his base’s anti-American sentiments and sympathies towards militants, including the Taliban.
The 2011 raid that killed Bin Laden was very embarrassing for the Pakistan military and spy agency, and caused the relationship between Pakistan and the United States to reach a record low.
Khan said Thursday that his government had improved relations with the United States and that the countries now had greater mutual trust.
There was no official reaction or clarification to the prime minister’s comment from his office on Friday, and top officials appeared to want to quickly overcome the controversy.
Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Pakistan’s foreign minister, tried to ignore the prime minister’s comments when asked by the local media for his reaction.
“It was an all-encompassing speech. This is not a matter of debate, ”said Mr. Qureshi. “Let’s leave it.”
