ISLAMABAD:
The United States abused Pakistan’s trust and the army was taken by surprise on the day American troops carried out a covert operation to kill al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, Director-General of Military Operations (DGMO) Major General Ashfaq Nadeem told an inquiry panel probing the matter on Monday.
“The US acted in an environment of trust and the Army was, therefore, taken by surprise,” said Maj Gen Nadeem who appeared before the inquiry commission probing the Abbottabad incident.
This was the commission’s third meeting and another meeting is scheduled to be held on August 1 for which director-general of Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has been summoned.
A brief official handout issued after the meeting said the DGMO gave details of army posts set up along the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Highlighting the various operations the army is carrying out against militants, he said that the army’s presence was aimed at re-establishing the writ of the state.
“We had envisaged no threat whatsoever from Afghanistan and Isaf (International Security Assistance Force), both of whom are allies of Pakistan in the fight against terrorism,” he was quoted as having told the commission.
An air force official had told the commission during the previous meeting that Pakistan’s radar system was in a peacetime mode the day US Marines intruded into Pakistan and the US used sophisticated technology to evade detection by Pakistan’s defence system.
Giving the army’s perspective on the debacle, Maj Gen Nadeem said that immediately after learning about the intrusion, army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani had contacted the air force chief, the foreign secretary, the prime minister and the president.
The DGMO explained that Abbottabad was “an open cantonment”, hosting “only training institutions”. He said that no fighting troops “are deployed in the (Abbottabad) garrison”. “These training institutions have their own security to deal with any security threat which is primarily to ensure the security of these training centres.”
Pakistan’s leading military academy, Kakul, is located just a couple of miles away from the compound where Osama was found.
Pakistan and US/Isaf, the DGMO said, conducted anti-militant operations on their respective sides and plans of operations close to the border “are fully shared”.
According to him, the US operation in Abbottabad was “not known to any tier in the Pakistan Army”.
Yet despite the admission of what appear to be several gaps in the country’s air defences, Maj-Gen Nadeem assured the commission that all of the country’s strategic sites “are very well protected and are under air and ground protection of Pakistan armed forces”.
He said linking their security with Abbottabad was unjustified and that there was no comparison.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 26th, 2011.
COMMENTS (16)
Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.
For more information, please see our Comments FAQ
How is it that Pakistan always, always finds a way to completely gloss over the little part about OBL living there for at least 5 years? That aspect has to be the least mentioned one by anyone in Pakistan and it's the biggest part of it. I could see trying to lessen the great deal of attention on it in the beginning for the sake of scavenging morale and pride. But, right now it's just getting annoying. Almost like they should just cut the formalities and tell everyone they're seen as idiots so they should shutup and stop trying to think.
So, the US breached trust and that's how they got in. How about the rest? You know, including that extremely recognizable guy who's hobbies include porn and mass murder? The attack on the army base? The rest of the infiltrations? You can complain about Afghan border crossing attacks and rightfully so. But, how about the ones on your side? Trust again?
This is the result: The top people are incompetent, the corrupt are somewhere in the middle, the naive and disposable are in the active ranks and the rest of the world is in their suckers category while in active denial of their statements no longer holding any weight and deemed a sufficient response.
As for the protected strategic assets... Hey, at least you're doing one thing competently and considering the level of credibility that isn't even a sure thing. I wonder what the odds are of anyone in Pakistan saying "our nukes are unprotected and at great risk" if they were?
What trust, US owns Pakistan and its leader. They can do what ever they want in Pakistan. Pakistan gave bases to US, so stop complaining and acting all with pride and honor
US is the champion of trash talking, backstabing and lies. Its the pentagon which defines the american policies vis-a-vis world affairs and implements and propagates through the rest of them. Americans are fed and taught what pentagon wants them to have. US has messed up big time both in afghanistan n iraq. I am curious about why isnt they worried about the atrocities committed by israel and by india in kashmir and also why the world or UN havent taken any strong action about the invasion of Iraq, where so far thousands of muslims have been killed and millions homeless and without food and dying of hunger. Am not supporter of OBL, But if we cal him a mass murderer, then U.S is also a mass murderer. Look wat dey did in iraq, luk wat r dey doing by killing innocent people in drones. They hav killed so many, even a 8month old baby was killed by drone, so many more like this, even if dey kill even 1 inncent person, i wud say death to america. Plz dnt judge the whole army by the misdeeds of a few high-ranking officers, it is our prime institution, our soldiers, our jawans, our young officers never hesitate to sacrifice their lives for the country when called upon to do so. Pakistan Zindabad.
Admit the failure! Both in intelligence to locate most sought person under your nose. And your failure to defend country borders, or even detect intrusion. From his statement, it looks like US forces didn't enter Abottabad from borders but suddenly popped up from earth within Abotabbad, surely if that's the case army is innocent.
So housing the most wanted man of your "ally" is not a breach of trust? Denying that he is even on your soil is not breach of trust?
America did what was necessary in the greater good of the Humanity. Pakistan arrests the people who helped kill a mass murderer but lets go LeJ Murderers who wreck havoc against the Shias, Pakistan's own Citizens. What a shame!
Pakistan b reached US trust by taking lots of money and using it hide OBL for six years. How's that for breach of trust?
And..Pakistan violated the trust of whole world.
OBL was residing in heart of Pakistan and that too in a Military Cantonment for six years without being noticed by civil auth as well as military agencies and both are now attributing this serious lapse on failure of intelligence. Does it not tantamount to breach of trust by Pakistan itself ?
Very well summed up by *Cautious* and further elaborated by Y. Khan. What we can learn from this operation, however, is the incompetence of the army in monitoring its borders and the defective radar system in detecting intrusion.
For those whoe think ousama was there are fooling themselves and the enitre world. America which was punished badly in AFG is now pretending that it won the war. Our media dosent analyze this way but the way CNN and BBC guide them..
As if US cares about our dignity and prestige. They have paid us dollars so they have every right to kill any one in this sovereign country. If govt. feels that US have done anything wrong, they return their each and every dollar from Swiss accounts and then say anything.
Why we are giving so much importance to Abbotabad incident. Isnt every drone attack is an incident of the same category?
The enemy will never tell you before he attacks...
Makes sense. The only mistake was to "trust" the United States. It seems Obama would do ANYTHING to win re-election. Presently the US is a few days away from defaulting on its debt because Obama has locked horns with the crazy republicans!