Thaindian News

London, May 4(ANI): Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir has hit back at Central Intelligence Agency chief Leon Panetta’s statement that suggested Islamabad could not be trusted with details of ‘Operation Geronimo’.

Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, 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.

The CIA did not keep Pakistan in the loop about the operation because US officials feared that Islamabad could have jeopardised the operation by leaking word to its targets, said Panetta.

“It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardise the mission. They might alert the targets,” TIME quoted Panetta, as saying in his first interview since commanding the mission to kill bin Laden.

Bashir told the BBC that this view was “disquietening”, and that his country had a “pivotal role” in tackling terrorism.

The Foreign Secretary said that Panetta was entitled to his views, but that his country had co-operated extensively with the US.

He said the compound in Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was shot dead, had been identified as suspicious some time ago by Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

But it took the greater resources of the CIA to determine that it was the hideout of the al-Qaeda leader.

“Most of these things that have happened in terms of global anti-terror, Pakistan has played a pivotal role,” said Bashir, adding, “So it’s a little disquieting when we have comments like this.” (ANI)