Pakistan PM lambasted for saying Osama Bin Laden was 'martyred'

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan faced a growing backlash on Thursday after he said former Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been 'martyred'.

Imran Khan made the comment in parliament as he was describing the history of Pakistan's troubled relations with the US since American special forces killed bin Laden in 2011 in the northern city of Abbottabad.

"The Americans came to Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden. Martyred him," Imran Khan said.

The prime minister faced blowback from opposition figures and observers following the televised speech.

Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) parliamentary leader Khawaja Asif later took the prime minister to task for “declaring” Osama Bin Laden a martyr, saying the Al Qaeda leader was a “terrorist” who had “ruined our country”.

"Imran Khan has fiddled with history, declaring Osama bin Laden as a martyr today," former foreign minister Khawaja Asif told parliament.

An independent member of the Pakistani National Assembly from the country’s tribal areas, Mohsin Dawar, also raised the issue and sought an explanation from the treasury benches. He later protested over the remarks and staged a walkout when he got no response.

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, who was present in his Parliament House chamber, also rushed to the assembly hall in the middle of the prime minister’s speech to respond to him.

The PPP chairman gave the response, but only after the departure of the prime minister from the house which was facilitated by Speaker Asad Qaiser by declaring a break for Asr prayers as soon as the prime minister finished his speech. He tweeted on the incident afterwards.

This was for the first time that the speaker had suspended the proceedings for the prayers since the start of general discussion on the budget on June 15, apparently to prevent the PPP chairman from taking the floor in the presence of the prime minister.

"Muslims all over the world are struggling because of the discrimination they face due to recent terrorism & our PM makes it worse by calling OBL a martyr of Islam!" Meena Gabeena, a Pakistani activist, said on Twitter.

Pakistan has officially denied knowing bin Laden was hiding in the country until he was shot dead in a night-time raid on May 2, 2011.

The incident was a major national embarrassment and caused already-tenuous ties between the US and Pakistan to fray further.

Asad Durrani, a former spymaster, told Al Jazeera in 2015 that Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency likely knew where he was hiding and hoped to use him as a bargaining chip.

The 9/11 mastermind was tracked down after a 10-year manhunt to Abbottabad, a garrison town north of Islamabad where Pakistan's military academy is headquartered, sparking allegations authorities were colluding with the terror group.

Imran Khan has made repeated controversial statements over the years, including during a trip to the US in 2019 when he claimed the ISI provided Washington with a lead that helped them find and kill bin Laden.

The cricketer-turned premier has long been criticised by opponents for overly sympathising with militants, with rivals once dubbing him "Taliban Khan".

(Source: NDTV, Dawn)