What was Pak's role in Osama's elimination?

Al Qaeda leader's killing has given rise to more questions than answers in the country, which has largely kept mum about the US-led operation on its shores. ISI chief says news of Pakistani cooperation could spark backlash

Al Qaeda leader's killing has given rise to more questions than answers in the country, which has largely kept mum about the US-led operation on its shores. ISI chief says news of Pakistani cooperation could spark backlash

The killing of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden yesterday has been received with cheers in the United States, but in Pakistan it has raised more questions than answers about the exact role of Pakistani authorities in the US-led operation and the impact of bin Laden's death on the raging insurgency here. US President Barack Obama said yesterday thatu00a0 American forces conducted a raid on a house in the northern Pakistani city of Abbottabad and killed the architect of the September 11, 2001, attacks in a firefight.


TERROR KINGPIN : This file photo taken in 1988 shows bin Laden
smiling as he sits in a cave in the Jalalabad region of Afghanistan.u00a0Pic/AFP

The development constitutes a major victory for the Obama administration, but its significance for Pakistan's government is less clear. While leaders the world over were quick to express satisfaction at the news, Pakistani authorities kept mum for several hours after Obama's address before issuing a terse statement in which they reiterated their resolve to fight terrorism but suggested they played no role in the covert operation.

That is not likely to be the case, said many observers of the Pakistani military. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, or ISI, is widely believed to have precise knowledge of the whereabouts of the various insurgent groups operating in the country. That it would ignore that the world's most wanted man had taken refuge in a Pakistani resort just miles from a military academy is inconceivable, said defence analyst Ayesha Siddiqa. She said that there must have been "some cooperation" between American and Pakistani intelligence services in the operation.

Why so quiet?
"What it means to Pakistan to me is worrying. Look at where he was caught," Siddiqa said. "That itself would raise questions as to what Pakistan was doing. Why were they so quiet? The ISI has long been accused by Americans of harbouring ties with militants to the point that it was labelled a terrorist organization as recently as 2007 by US authorities, according to documents released by Wikileaks.

Those accusations were unfounded and bin Laden's killing was the result of a "great contribution by Pakistani forces" for which the Americans were taking credit, said Rasul Baksh Rais, a professor of political science at Lahore University. "I think an apology is due to the ISI," he said.

Senior officials in the Obama administration said the operation conducted yesterday was the result of years of careful intelligence work. They said Pakistani authorities assisted in pursuing the intelligence lead but were informed of the raid only after it had taken place.

Intelligence sharing
"We shared our intelligence on this bin Laden compound with no other country, including Pakistan," a senior US official said. "That was for one reason and one reason alone: We believed it was essential to the security of the operation and our personnel."

In its statement, Pakistan's Foreign Ministry did not mention any involvement in the operation but said that it had played a major role in fighting terrorism on its soil. "We have had extremely effective intelligence-sharing arrangements with several intelligence agencies, including that of the US," the ministry said.

Publicising these efforts is another issue, however. Two prominent members of Pakistan's ruling party were killed earlier this year for their comments on Pakistan's blasphemy laws, and to the extent possible the government has tried to avoid fueling anger among the country's religious extremists.

"Backlash will be there if Pakistan is found to have cooperated (in the US-led operation)," said former ISI chief Hamid Gul on a Pakistani news channel. Imtiaz Gul, an Islamabad-based political analyst, said that the raid wouldn't have happened without ISI collaboration and that the success of the operation is sure to reduce tensions between American and Pakistani intelligenceu00a0services.