OUTRAGE AFTER IMRAN CALLS OSAMA MARTYR
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan faced a growing backlash on Thursday after he said former al Qaeda leader and 9/11 mastermind Osama bin Laden had been “martyred”.
Khan made the comment in Parliament as he was describing the history of Pakistan’s troubled relations with the US since American special forces killed bin Laden in 2011 in the northern city of Abbottabad.
“The Americans came to Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden. Martyred him,” Khan said. His speech was condemned by the opposition. Khawaja Asif of PML-N said Khan’s speech was “riddled with errors on history and politics”, adding that bin Laden“brought terrorism to my country.
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has drawn flak for calling the slain al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden a “shaheed” or martyr, leading parliamentarians to seek an apology.
Speaking in parliament on Thursday amid rising criticism of his handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, Khan connected the issue to the US criticism of Pakistan’s role in the war on terror. “They came into our country and killed Osama Bin Laden, martyred him, all the world criticised us instead.” Khan said Pakistan supported the war on terror but US continued to blame Pakistan.
“We were even blamed for their failures in Afghanistan... we were not sure whether America was our ally or our enemy,” he said.
Laden was killed in a military operation by US Navy Seals in 2011 in Abbottabad.
Slamming Khan’s speech, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari of PPP said, “I can only compare this to how the state of Pakistan sent soldiers to fight in Kargil. They sent them to their deaths and we did not even acknowledge them.”
Khawaja Asif of the opposition PML-N said Khan’s speech was “riddled with errors on history and politics”. He said
Osama“brought terrorism to my country. He destroyed my country and Imran Khan has declared him a shaheed”.
Asif said, “Zia ul Haq brought Osama to Pakistan and Imran Khan has called him a shaheed.”
The row came as Islamabad rejected the US state department’s annual report on terrorism as “self-contradictory” and “selective” in its characterisation of Pakistan’s efforts to counter terrorism and terror financing.
The US report has accused Pakistan of continuing to be a “safe haven” for terrorist groups such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad.
PIA GROUNDS A THIRD OF ITS ‘FAKE’ PILOTS
Pakistan International Airlines said on Thursday it has grounded almost a third of its pilots for holding fake or dubious licences, a month after one of its planes crashed into houses killing 97 people. The move came after the government released a preliminary report into the May 22 crash in Karachi. PIA spokesman Abdullah Hafeez Khan said a probe had found about 150 of its 434 pilots were carrying “either bogus or suspicious licences”.
“We have decided to ground those 150 pilots with immediate effect,” he said. IMTIAZ AHMAD