Osama not protected by any Pak agency: Malik

JEDDAH: Interior Minister Rehman Malik has admitted that hiding of Al-Qaeda Chief Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad was an intelligence failure.

In an interview with an Arabic newspaper, Rehman Malik said killing of Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan has strengthened our resolve to fight the menace of terrorism with renewed vigor.

It was an intelligence failure. Sometimes it happens, but I assure our allies that he was not protected by any government agency, the Interior Minister stated.

He said that 9/11 also happened due to intelligence failure. Not only 9/11, I can cite other incidents in the world which were result of agencies failure. That does not mean that those agencies protected terrorists, he added.

Malik ruled out the possibility of anyone, either from the political leadership or from the military top brass, stepping down for the “intelligence failure.”

No heads will roll in the aftermath of Osama, he said, adding how many people resigned after 9/11 in the US?

Who created Bin Laden and sent him to fight Russians? he questioned. We never invited him to Pakistan. He went there with hundreds of other Arab fighters to wage a jihad against Russian forces, and the world knows who supported them, he added.

An extensive investigation has been ordered to know the circumstances that enabled Bin Laden to stay in the country undetected, he concluded.