Thaindian News

Islamabad, May 3(ANI): The killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden is a “shared achievement” by the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan, US Special Representative for Pakistan and Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, has said.

The Saudi-born terrorist, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed Sunday night in a top secret operation involving a small team of US Special Forces in Abbottabad city, located 50 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometres east of Peshawar.

At an Af-Pak-US joint press conference in Islamabad, Grossman said that the al Qaeda leader was an enemy of both the US and Pakistan, as thousands of Pakistani civilians and soldiers had died at the hands of terrorists.

“All three countries had this commitment to an end to extremism. This effort is far from over,” Sky News quoted Grossman, as saying.

When asked about various conspiracy theories surrounding Bin Laden’s death, he said: “You can have as many conspiracies as you wish. He’s dead, it’s good, [but] we still have to fight extremism.”

Grossman was speaking after Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari denied accusations that his country was harbouring Bin Laden as America pledged to find out how the most wanted terrorist remained undetected in his hideout.

Zardari said it was a “baseless speculation” to accuse Pakistan of turning a blind eye to Bin Laden’s presence in a heavily fortified villa in Abbottabad, just 60 miles from the capital Islamabad.

Pakistan’s High Commissioner Wajid Shamsul Hassan told the news channel: “Pakistan is a victim of terrorism and it is really below the belt when we are accused of passing information to the Taliban or al Qaeda and accused of not doing enough.”

“All these things hurt us more than anything else. We have been at the forefront of this war on terror and we have been fighting al Qaeda,” he added. (ANI)