Pakistan warns US, India as its PM blames world

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir cautions against covert operations on its territory; PM blames the whole world for intelligence failure

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir cautions against covert operations on its territory; PM blames "the whole world" for intelligence failure

In an apparent bid to save face over the killing of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir on Thursday lashed out at America for not consulting Islamabad ahead of the military operation that led to Osama bin Laden's death. Pakistan named India as well, while warning US against any further covert operation on Pakistani territory, saying this would lead to a "terrible catastrophe".


Mind you: Bashir's comments come as Pak officials faced rising domestic
backlash after the US raid.u00a0Yousuf Raza Gilani. Pics/AFP

CIA director Leon Panetta, who had personally commanded operation Gerinimo had made it pointedly clear that the Obama administration "did not" inform Pakistan about the covert operation because of fears that the details would be leaked. Admitting that the US assault that killed Osama bin Laden did achieve "important results", Bashir said, "This cannot be taken as a rule."

"There should be no doubt that Pakistan has a capacity to ensure its own defence," he said. He also commented on the recent remarks by India's Army and Air Force chiefs that if needed, they are capable of US-like operation to catch hold of those wanted for 26/11. "Any other country that would ever act on assumption that it has the right to unilateralism of any sort will find, as far as Pak is concerned, that it has made a basic mistake," Bashir warned. He added, "We see a lot of bravado in our region... from the military, air force, which state that this can be repeated... We feel that sort of misadventure or miscalculation will result in a catastrophe."

Bashir cited United Nations Security Council resolutions on counter-terror operations to say that that "everyone concerned ought to be mindful of their international obligations."

Global intel failure
Meanwhile, Pakistani officials blamed "the whole world" for taking so long to find Osama bin Laden, and hinted the United States had ignored information about the al Qaeda leader's lair since 2009. The Pakistani Prime Ministeru00a0 Yousuf Raza Gilani says it's the world's fault. "There is [an] intelligence failure of the whole world, not Pakistan," he said.u00a0u00a0u00a0

Backing him, Bashir said, "The fact is, on this particular occasion, [bin Laden's compound] was pointed out by our intelligence quite some time ago." He added that ISI concentrated on the "caves and hideouts," and indicated it was up to Washington to check out the compound because they have "much more sophisticated technology and equipment."

Proud of ISI
Bashir criticised the media for reports that Osama had covert ISI backing when he lived in Pakistan, until his killing by the US. He said he was "proud of the work of ISI".u00a0 "It is an important arm of the government, which has contributed enormously to the anti-terror campaign," he said.