WASHINGTON: The United States has no reason to believe that the government of Pakistan knew about the location of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, says the State Department.

At a news briefing in Washington, the department’s spokesperson Jen Psaki rejected former ISI chief retired Lt. Gen. Asad Durrani’s suggestion that the spy agency was aware of Bin Laden’s whereabouts and had shared it with US agencies.

Also read: Pakistan may have shared OBL's location with US: Former ISI chief

“As we’ve stated in the past and the president (Barack Obama) and Secretary (Hillary) Clinton at the time stated, we don’t have any reason to believe that the government of Pakistan knew about the location of Bin Laden,” Ms Psaki said. “That remains our belief.”

The Al Qaeda leader was hiding in a house in Abbottabad when US troops raided the building on May 2, 2011 and killed him.

Published in Dawn February 14th , 2015

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