Pakistan was unaware of bin Laden’s location: Former US ambassador

Former US ambassador to Pakistan Cameron Munter said that Pakistan did not know that Osama Bin Laden was residing in Abbottabad but the incident deepened mistrust between Islamabad and Washington.

He said this while speaking at a dinner hosted by chairman Pathfinder Group in honour of former Chief of Army Staff General (retd) Raheel Sharif on Wednesday.

“Those who claimed that Pakistan knew about the whereabouts of bin Laden were wrong,” said Munter, who is currently president of East-West Institute.

Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan in 2011 by an elite team of US Navy SEALS after a decade on the run.

Following the killing, Washington revealed that Pakistan was kept in the dark to avoid tipping off the mastermind behind the September 11, 2001, attacks.

The former envoy said that the killing of the al Qaeda leader inside Pakistan further deepened mistrust between both the countries. “Terrible mistakes were made due to deep mistrust,” he added.

The former envoy said Pak-US relations were greatly affected by ‘two myths’.

“The Pakistan myth is that Americans used Pakistan when it needed and abandoned it afterwards while the US myth was that Pakistan would not be a reliable partner despite getting billions of dollars in aid, both military and civilian”, he added.

The problem is that there was little truth in both of these myths and that deepened the mistrust, he said.

He said that the US took seven months to apologise for the Salala attack —in which 24 Pakistani soldiers embraced martyrdom —at the Afghan-Pakistan border which further deepened the mistrust.

Munter admired former military chief Raheel Sharif, saying the “General showed a style of openness to achieve goals.”