Osama bin Laden was killed in Pakistan under a secret deal signed between the two allies that allowed the United States to launch unilateral raids into Pakistani lands to hunt Al-Qaeda leader.
According to US officials, a secret deal was signed in 2001 between the administration of former US president George W. Bush and former Pakistani military leader Pervez Musharraf.
Under the deal, US troops were allowed to launch unilateral raids into Pakistan to hunt bin Laden and other Al-Qaeda leaders.
The deal allowed Islamabad to protest US swoops into Pakistani territories.
Under its terms, Pakistanis may not have been informed of the assault, they had agreed to it in principle.
The secret agreement was renewed between the two allies in February 2008.
US troops killed bin Laden, his son and three guards in a ground operation on his mansion in Abbottabad, 100km (62 miles) north-east of Islamabad last week.
The killing has brought Islamabad into the eye of storm over violating Pakistani sovereignty by US troops.
Pakistani officials have insisted they knew nothing of the raid, with military and civilian leaders issuing a strong rebuke to the US.
Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani warned Monday that unilateral actions such as the US swoop on bin Laden’s hideout ran the risk of serious consequences.
“Unilateralism runs the inherent risk of serious consequences. Suppose the operation had gone wrong,” he told parliament.
Musharraf, who reportedly signed the deal, had also criticized the US raid, terming it a “violation of the sovereignty of Pakistan”.
Pakistani-US relations were already fragile after a string of diplomatic disputes over issues including a big attack by a US drone aircraft in March and Raymond Davis, a CIA contractor who shot dead two Pakistanis in the city of Lahore in January.
Public Face
Under the deal, Pakistan would vocally protest the US raids, but without taking action.
“The Pakistanis would put up a hue and cry, but they wouldn’t stop us,” the US official said.
The official said that the Pakistani protests of the past week were the “public face” of the deal.
“We knew they would deny this stuff.”
According to the Guardian, the revelation is consistent with Pakistan’s silent policy on US drone attacks in the tribal belt near Afghan borders.
The US officials said that the drone attacks are carried under a deal driven by Washington.
“It didn’t come from Musharraf’s desire,” the official said.
“On the Predators, we made it very clear to them that if they weren’t going to prosecute these targets, we were, and there was nothing they could do to stop us taking unilateral action.
“We told them, over and again: ‘We’ll stop the Predators if you take these targets out yourselves.'”
Source: OnIslam
Comments