ISLAMABAD: Osama bin Laden's killing by US commandos in the shadow of Pakistan's version of West Point is said to have dealt a major blow to the ISI, exposing it for either sheer incompetence or complicity.
While Pakistan is officially a key ally in the US-led "war on terror", the discovery that bin Laden lived undisturbed in a $1million villa under the noses of the military has fuelled suspicions that it has played a double game.
For years Pakistani leaders said bin Laden was either dead or abroad, but it took a US hit squad just 40 minutes to raid his house and fly off with the body, a mere 30 miles (50 kilometres) from the capital.
Despite the accusations of complicity, none of Pakistan's military leaders or intelligence chiefs have come out publicly to comment on the daring US raid in Abbottabad, a town home to an elite military academy.
Instead civilian leaders have denied the country knew of bin Laden's whereabouts.
"Intelligence failures are not unique to the ISI," Pakistan's ambassador in Washington, Husain Haqqani, told AFP by telephone.
"We will inquire into the causes of what happened but it's really important not to turn it into any allegation of complicity."
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.