Pakistan’s ex-spy chief in bin Laden investigation

A FORMER Pakistan spy chief has been blocked from leaving the country after suggesting that intelligence chiefs may have known of Osama bin Laden’s presence and cooperated with the 2011 US raid to kill the al-qaeda leader.

Lt Gen Asad Durrani has faced accusations of treachery since making a string of candid comments in a book on Pakistan’s intelligence war with India.

The former chief of the military’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) had already been ordered before defence chiefs to explain himself, but was put on a no-fly list as a formal investigation was ordered yesterday. Lt Gen Durrani’s book, The Spy Chronicles, is a collaboration with Amarjit Singh Dulat, who headed India’s intelligence agency, the ISI’S arch-rival.

Pakistan maintains it had no knowledge of bin Laden’s presence hidden in the town of Abbottabad next to an Army officer training academy. Its denial has been backed by the CIA.