Former Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General (retired) Asad Durrani has said on record that Pakistan had "most likely" revealed Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's whereabouts to the United States prior to his killing in Abbottabad in May 2011. Mr. Durrani said that it is "quite possible" that ISI did not know and "more probable" that they did know about the Al Qaeda chief's location and if they did, the idea was to wait for the "right time" to reveal the location. He added that he believed that Laden's position was revealed to the U.S. in lieu of an agreement on "how to bring the Afghan problem to an end."

On being asked whether the Abbottabad compound, where Laden was residing at that time, was an "ISI safehouse," Durrani said that if ISI was sheltering Laden, they were doing a "good job" and when they revealed his location, they did "what was required to be done." The former ISI chief added that the comments were his opinion and he did not know "what had happened." As usual, Pakistan officially denies that the ISI provided safe haven to Laden or that it had any role to play in the May 2011 operation in Abbottabad.

By Premji