ISPR, Foreign Office term NYT report baseless, unfounded

ISLAMABAD: Director General Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) Asim Saleem Bajwa and Foreign Office have categorically rejected the New York Times report wherein the daily alleged ISI of having cognizance of Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts in Abbottabad, ARY News reported Thursday.

DG ISPR, in a statement, termed the allegations baseless and unfounded. He stated that Carlotta Gal’s report had no credibility.

The article alleged that the Pakistan’s premium intelligence agency, Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), had established a special desk to deal late al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

Meanwhile, in its weekly press briefing, the Foreign Office spokesperson Tasneem Aslam said the NYT report was baseless. The writer has not acquired information from a credible source, FO spokesperson added.

The article of the NYT cited a Pakistani official who claimed the US had direct evidence of the then ISI chief Lt. General Ahmed Shuja Pasha being aware of Osama bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad. The Pakistani official told Carlotta Gall that he was “surprised to learn this and the Americans were even more so.” According to the official, Pasha had been an opponent of the Taliban and “an open and cooperative counterpart for the Americans at the ISI.”