Pakistan PM Imran Khan claims US 'martyred' Osama bin Laden

  26 June 2020    Read: 963
Pakistan PM Imran Khan claims US

Imran Khan hit out at Washington for not informing Pakistan of its plans to kill the al-Qaeda leader on their soil.

Pakistan's Prime Minister has controversially claimed the US "martyred" Osama bin Laden when they assassinated him in 2011.

Imran Khan hit out at Washington for not informing Pakistani officials before they raided bin Laden's Abottabad compound in the middle of the night nine years ago - despite them supporting the US in the war on terror.

In a rambling budget speech to parliament, he said: "We sided with the US in the war on terror but they came here and killed him, martyred him and ... used abusive language against us [and] did not inform us [of the raid], despite the fact that we lost 70,000 people in the war on terror."

The use of the word "martyr", usually reserved for heroes slain in battle, quickly drew criticism from opposition leaders.

Lawmaker Khwaja Mohammed Asif slammed Mr Khan for his choice of language, saying the al-Qaeda chief had brought terrorism to Pakistan.

He said: "He [bin Laden] ruined my country but he [Khan] is calling him a martyr."

Mr Khan also told parliament the Americans blamed Islamabad for failing to control the situation in neighbouring Afghanistan - using them as a scapegoat for their failure to defeat the Taliban despite having 150,000 US soldiers on the ground there.


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