By IANS,
Islamabad : Faced with American fury and domestic anger, Pakistan Thursday blew hot and cold on Osama bin Laden — denying links with Al Qaeda and warning Washington and New Delhi against any more air raids of the kind which killed the world’s most wanted terrorist.
In the most substantive official reaction since US special forces killed Osama in a mansion in Abbottabad city Monday, Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir took pains to underline that while Pakistan remained committed to battle terrorism, its sovereignty needed to be respected.
In veiled remarks that it would not take any more intrusion by anyone kindly, Bashir said that Pakistan’s leaders and people were proud of their “dignity, honour and make no mistake..”.
“Construing it in any other manner is wrong, simply wrong,” he added.
Bashir spoke a day after White House Press Secretary Jay Carney warned that the US would again carry out special operations in Pakistan if needed to target high profile terrorists — comments that have only further incensed Pakistani public opinion.
Admitting that the midnight assault by US special forces that killed the elusive Osama did achieve “important results”, Bashir said: “This can’t be taken as a rule.”
And in a clear reference to India, he said: “Any other country that would ever act (similarly) on the assumption that it has the might … will find it has made a basic miscalculation.”
He added: “We see a lot of bravado in our region… from the military, air force, which state that this can be repeated.
“We feel that this sort of misadventure or miscalculation will result in a catastrophe…
“There should be no doubt that Pakistan has a capacity to ensure its own defence.”
Bashir sought to clear persisting doubts within Pakistan over the US attack by saying that it was a covert operation and that Islamabad was not consulted.
He hinted that if the Pakistani military — which was not told about the American assault — had taken some counter measures, it “could have led to a terrible catastrophe. It is good that it has not happened”.
Pakistani authorities have come under widespread criticism abroad for allowing Osama to take shelter in Abbottabad city, not far from Islamabad, and internally for being caught unawares about the US storming.
Bashir took pains to say that not too much should be read into the fact that the sprawling house where Osama lived was located close to a military academy.
He said the academy was four kilometres away. “It is a routine training institution.”
Bashir also vehemently denied linkages between Al Qaeda and the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), which for decades channelled US arms and cash to Islamic guerrillas battling the Soviets in Afghanistan.
“It’s easy to say that elements within the government were in cahoots with Al Qaeda. This is a false charge.
“It cannot be validated. It flies in the face of what ISI has been able to accomplish (in the war on terror).”
Bashir detailed the number of Al Qaeda leaders and operatives the ISI had arrested and handed over to the US.
This included Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, a Pakistani who was a key plotter of 9/11 that turned the US against the Islamabad-backed Taliban and led to a decade-long manhunt for Osama.
“We are proud of the work of ISI. It is an important arm of the government which has contributed enormously to the anti-terror campaign.”
Ever since Osama was killed, allegations have mounted that the Al Qaeda founder could not have lived for so long deep inside Pakistan without some help from at least some ISI officers — serving or retired.
And while emphasizing that Pakistan and the US remained strategic partners, Bashir pointed fingers at Washington for creating Osama a long time ago.
“Osama is history… The making of Osama is a separate theme. I don’t want to elaborate on that.”