Bin Laden killing great victory - Pakistan PM
2011-05-02 12:04
Islamabad - Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said in an interview on Monday that the US killing of Osama bin Laden, not far from the Pakistani capital, was a "great victory".
"We will not allow our soil to be used against any other country for terrorism and therefore I think it's a great victory, it's a success and I congratulate the success of this operation," he said.
Asked about the extent to which Pakistan co-operated in the operation he said: "I don't know the details, I don't know minute details, but in short we have intelligence co-operation".
However, that view was contradicted by a US official who said that the US did not notify Pakistani allies about its operation against bin Laden.
"We shared this intelligence on the compound with no other country, including Pakistan," the official told reporters on condition of anonymity.
The need to maintain the complete secrecy about the covert operation was cited as the chief reason for not sharing the information with Islamabad.
But in announcing the news of bin Laden's death, US President Barack Obama credited Islamabad's co-operation with helping US forces to pinpoint bin Laden's whereabouts after a years-long manhunt.