bin Laden and the Pakistan connection

A high school classmate, who now lives in India after quite a few years here in the US, comments in his Facebook page on the American forces taking out bin Laden well inside Pakistan, this close to its capital and military facilities:

The beginning of recognition for Pakistan's army as a terrorist organization...

The Pakistani military-ISI-terrorism angle will come under intense scrutiny, within that country, in India, in the US and around the world.  The Times of India notes:

top US officials have openly suggested for months that the Pakistani military establishment was hiding bin Laden. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton came closest to publicly exposing Pakistan's role last May when she accused some government officials there of harboring Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar.

''I am not saying they are at the highest level...but I believe somewhere in this government are people who know where Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida and where Mullah Omar and the leadership of the Taliban are,'' Clinton said on May 10 last year, adding, ''We expect more cooperation (from Pakistan) to help us bring to justice capture or kill those who brought us 9/11.''

Taken together with President Obama's pointed reference to President Zardari and leaving out any mention of Pakistani forces' involvement, it would seem that Washington believes that Pakistan's military intelligence establishment, including the ISI, was sheltering bin Laden. The ISI was accused as recently as last week by the top US military official Admiral Mike Mullen of having terrorist links, and named as a terrorist support entity by US officials, according to the Guantanamo cables.

Lending credence to the charges is the fact that US forces homed in on bin Laden in Abbottabad, which is a cantonment just 50 kms from Islamabad, where the Pakistani military has a strong presence. The place where bin Laden was killed is only kilometers from the Kakul military academy, where many Pakistani military elites, including some of its ISI cadres, graduate from.

While US officials are tightlipped about precise details, analysts are trying to figure out whether the compound that sheltered bin Laden was an ISI safehouse. There is also speculation as to whether Hillary Clinton was referring to this when she made her pointed remarks last May.

US officials have said for years that they believed bin Laden escaped to Pakistan after the American bombing campaign in Afghanistan. But Pakistani officials, including its former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, insisted that he was in Afghanistan, even as Afghan officials would angrily refute it and say he is in Pakistan. In the end, the Americans and Afghans were right on the money.

A few minutes after President Obama's address to the country, world actually, I called my parents, who live in India. 

It was about 930 in the morning there and, of course, like normal people they were not watching television at the early time of the day.  Mom hoped that it would not be a case of Ravana and his heads :)

India's minister wasted no time in reminding the world about this serious Pakistani nexus:

India today said the killing of global terrorist Osama bin Laden was a matter of grave concern as it proved that terrorists belonging to different groups find sanctuary in Pakistan.

Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said in a statement that perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan.

He said that earlier today the U.S. government informed New Delhi that Osama bin Laden had been killed by security forces somewhere “deep inside Pakistan.”

“After the September 11, 2001 terror attack, the U.S. had a reason to seek Osama bin Laden and bring him and his accomplices to justice,” the statement said.

“We take note with grave concern that part of the statement in which President (Barack) Obama said that the fire fight in which Osama bin Laden was killed took place in Abbotabad ‘deep inside Pakistan’

“This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan,” he said.

The Home Minister said in the wake of this incident “we believe that perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks, including the controllers and handlers of the terrorists who actually carried out the attack, continue to be sheltered in Pakistan.

“We once again call upon the Government of Pakistan to arrest the persons whose names have been handed over to the Interior Minister of Pakistan as well as provide voice samples of certain persons who are suspected to be among the controllers and handlers of the terrorists.”

Oh ... I have a class to teach ...