Unlikely Osama was in Abbottabad for 5 years: Former ISI head

'It is uncharacteristic of Al Qaeda to keep its leadership in one position for so long': ex-ISI chief General Haq.

LONDON: It is unlikely Osama bin Laden lived for years in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad where he was found and killed by U.S. forces, a former head of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, General Ehsan ul-Haq, said on Wednesday.

The former head, who ran the ISI from 2001-2004, also rejected frequently-made suggestions that individual ISI agents might have helped the al Qaeda leader, arguing that it was a disciplined organisation whose officers followed the policies of the country.

Haq said he was surprised and embarrassed about Bin Laden’s discovery by the US instead of the ISI but said he did not think he had been there for as long as five years as some reports had suggested, given that other militant leaders moved all the time to avoid capture.

"It would have been entirely uncharacteristic of al Qaeda to keep its leadership in one position for so long," he told Reuters on the sidelines of a security seminar.

"My own sense is that he has not been there for so long." The reports that Bin Laden lived in Abbottabad for five years was based on comments by his wives, relayed by officials.

Haq said he believed Bin Laden had chosen Abbottabad, home to the Pakistan Military Academy, since it had access to the mountains on the border with Afghanistan, and was a relatively quiet town less scrutinised by Pakistani security services.

"There were fewer, or hardly any acts of terrorism in that part of the country and consequently there was less focus by the intelligence and security services," he said.