9/11 terror mastermind Osama bin Laden is an honourable man for Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan.
Addressing the Pakistan National Assembly, Imran Khan dubbed Osama as a “shaheed” or martyr. Needless to say, this comment has triggered a massive row. Head of the Al Qaeda, bin Laden was the mastermind of a series of terror attacks worldwide including the 9/11 attack of 2001 which claimed the lives of nearly 3,000 innocent people when five planes were hijacked to target major cities in the United States.
Osama was killed in a military operation by US Navy Seals under Operation Neptune Spear on May 2, 2011 at the garrison town of Abbottabad keeping Pakistan in the dark.
While delivering his speech, Imran Khan said, “We were very embarrassed when Americans came and killed Osama Bin Laden at Abottabad, made him a martyr.”
Pakistan’s leading multimedia journalist Amber Rahim Shamsi in fact tweeted an old TV interview clipping of Imran Khan conducted by NDTV where he had said that for a certain section of the society bin Laden became a martyr.
Imran Khan has always been careful about not directly calling Osama bin Laden a martyr. Here Khan says “a section of society” thinks he is. Guess this filter came off in the National Assembly today. pic.twitter.com/AY4oOe4rFI
— Amber Rahim Shamsi (@AmberRShamsi) June 25, 2020
Incidentally, in September last year during his US trip, Imran Khan said Pakistan had informed the American security agencies about the presence of Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. He went on to suggest that United States of America should not have undertaken a ‘covert’ operation to kill Osama keeping Pakistan in the dark.
This was IK during his D.C. visit last year. Perhaps he would do well to redirect his outrage where it is more needed. Will he? https://t.co/5bOxkUJIIk https://t.co/tjBwBYOLoC pic.twitter.com/ZxCssYo2LG
— Awais Saleem (@awaissaleem77) June 25, 2020
Tearing into the US, Imran Khan said that after American forces entered Pakistan and killed Laden without informing Islamabad, everyone in the world started abusing Pakistan causing huge embarrassment. He also blamed the US for deaths of 70,000-odd Pakistanis due to US-waged war on terror.