Washington: The ISI provided intelligence to the CIA which helped the US track down and kill Osama bin Laden in Pakistan, Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Monday, in a significant revelation as Islamabad had so far denied having any knowledge of the dreaded al-Qaeda chief in the country until he was shot dead by US Navy Seals in 2011.

Khan, who is in Washington on his maiden official trip, revealed this during an interview with Fox News, US President Donald Trump's favourite channel, when he was asked whether his government would release the jailed Pakistani surgeon Shakeel Afridi who helped the CIA track down Osama in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad on May 2, 2011. Khan's statement is significant because Pakistan had so far denied that it had any information about the hideout of Osama before he was killed in a covert raid by US special forces. "It was the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that gave the information which led to the location of Osama bin Laden. If you ask the CIA it was the ISI which gave the initial location through the phone connection," Khan said. Responding to questions, Khan was reluctant to give any commitment on the release of the Pakistani doctor Afridi.