LAHORE- Ex-ISI Chief Mohammad Assad Durrani hinted that ISI knew about the whereabouts of Osama Bin Laden (OBL) and allowed CIA to run an operation in Abbottabad to take out the mastermind of Twin Towers tragedy. He made this claim in his book ” The Spy Chronicles: RAW, ISI and the Illusion of Peace”, co-authored by Ex-RAW Chief AS Dulat.
Durani made these comments while answering a question asked by journalist Aditya Sinha, the moderator of the conversation between Two Ex-Chiefs of respective spy agencies.
“I’ve been on TV with my own assessment, whether unko chhupa ke rakha hua hain, or whether at some stage we knew, we had the upper hand. At some stage the ISI probably learnt about it and he was handed over to the US according to a mutually agreed process. Perhaps we are the ones who told the Americans isko le jao, we are going to feign ignorance,” Shared Durrani in his book, “If we denied any role, it may have been to avoid political fallout. Cooperating with the US to eliminate a person regarded by many in Pakistan as a ‘hero’ could have embarrassed the government.”
RAW’s former chief agreed to his answer and said, “Our assessment is the same. That he was handed over by Pakistan.”
Durrani’s claim is contradictory to the claim made in 2011 by Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, that no ISI or military officer of Pakistan knew about the presence of Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad.
Osama bin Laden was killed in a firefight with US forces in Pakistan’s garrison city of Abbottabad on May 1, 2011, ending a nearly 10-year worldwide hunt for the then chief of the Al Qaeda militant organization.
Contrary to reports, Pakistan officially denies that the ISI protected Osama bin Laden or that it had played any role in the May 2011 raid in Abbottabad.
