“We knew they (Americans) would construct such amazing stories to implicate Pakistan,” said a senior security official on condition of anonymity.
“The reason is obvious. They are now looking for a scapegoat for their failures in Afghanistan,” he said, when asked to comment on why the US would deliberately leak such stories.
The report said that the Taliban spiritual leader, who disappeared after the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan, appeared to have suffered a heart attack on January 7 and had been taken to a hospital near Karachi.
The newspaper cited a report by a private intelligence network run by former US security officials, known as “The Eclipse Group,” which reportedly said its source was a physician at the hospital.
It went on to claim that the ISI officials had “rushed him to a hospital in Karachi, where he was given heparin (an anticoagulant) and operated on.” He was released to the ISI after a few days, the report added.
The Pakistan military has, however, rejected the report outright. “The news is unfounded and concocted to serve vested interests,” said the spokesperson of the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR).
“There is a trust deficit between the two countries. We don’t trust them and they don’t believe us either,” was the candid response by another official, who deals with Americans on issues of strategic importance.
The official said that the timing of the report was significant. “We have an important trilateral meeting coming up in Washington, so this could be a deliberate move on part of certain elements to shift the blame on Pakistan,” he said.
Security and defence analyst Brigadier (retd) Mehmood Shah endorses the view. “There are hawks in Washington and also in Kabul who are trying to exert pressure on Pakistan,” opined Shah, who has also served as Federally Administered Tribal Areas secretary.
“The hawks will try to strengthen their case against Pakistan by using reports such as the one that appeared recently in The Washington Post,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Taliban and the ISI have also denied the claims made in the report.
Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahib told AFP: “Supreme Leader Mullah Mohammad Omar is absolutely fine and healthy and is continuing his jihad activities in Afghanistan.
“We were informed of this news through media only and his heart surgery in Karachi is a mere rumour created by our enemies,” he said.
The Taliban’s Mujahib accused countries with troops in Afghanistan of spreading the rumours over Omar’s health.
“The enemy is trying to cover their losses and create tension and terror among the people of Afghanistan and want to show that the Afghan government and their Western allies are the winners,” he said.
With additional input from AFP.
Published in The Express Tribune, January 21st, 2011.
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