ISLAMABAD, May 2: Defence Minister Chaudhry Ahmed Mukhtar has said the government and armed forces of Pakistan played a vital role in the elimination of former Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden through a mobile phone’s chip/SIM, DawnNews reported.

Speaking during an exclusive interview to BBC’s Urdu Service on Wednesday, the minister claimed that it was Pakistan’s armed forces which had weakened the Al Qaeda’s terrorist network.

He revealed that the former Al Qaeda chief was hunted down through a mobile phone’s SIM/chip which was found ‘fortuitously’.

Mr Mukhtar also revealed that Pakistan was bound by a contract with the United States to hand over all Arabic and English data found in the search for the Al Qaeda chief. Similarly, the US was to provide all Urdu data to Pakistan for intelligence-sharing purposes.The defence minister also said that the armed forces were currently looking into material recovered from the compound in Abbottabad, where Osama bin Laden was killed by US forces.

Moreover, the minister said that Dr Shakeel should have informed the Pakistan government rather than the US.