The Americans came to Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden. Martyr to him: Imran Khan
Islamabad
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan faced a mounting reaction on Thursday after he said that former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been “martyred”.
Imran Khan made the comment in parliament while describing the history of Pakistan’s troubled relations with the United States since bin Laden was killed by US special forces in 2011 in the northern city of Abbottabad.
“The Americans came to Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden. They martyred him,” said Imran Khan.
The prime minister faced pushback from opposition figures and observers after the televised speech.
“Imran Khan has toyed with history, declaring Osama bin Laden a martyr today,” former Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif told parliament.
“Muslims around the world are fighting because of the discrimination they face because of recent terrorism and our Prime Minister makes it worse by calling obl a martyr to Islam!” Meena Gabeena, a Pakistani activist, said on Twitter.
Pakistan has officially denied knowing that Bin Laden was hiding in the country until he was shot dead in a nighttime raid on May 2, 2011.
The incident was a great national embarrassment and caused the already tenuous ties between the United States and Pakistan to be further undone.
Asad Durrani, a former spymaster, told Al Jazeera in 2015 that Pakistan’s powerful Inter-Service Intelligence (ISI) agency probably knew where it was hiding and hoped to use it as a bargaining chip.
The September 11 brain was traced after a 10-year manhunt to Abbottabad, a garrison town north of Islamabad, where the headquarters of the Pakistani Military Academy is located, prompting allegations that authorities were colluding. with the terrorist group.
Imran Khan has made repeated controversial statements over the years, including during a trip to the US in 2019, when he claimed that the ISI provided Washington with a clue that helped them find and kill Bin Laden.
The opponent-turned-cricketer has long been criticized by opponents for sympathizing too much with militants, and his rivals once called him “Taliban Khan.”
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