Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan courted controversy on Thursday, 25 June, when he labelled 9/11 mastermind Osama Bin Laden a ‘martyr’ who was ‘killed by the United States’ in Pakistan's Abbottabad.
Addressing the National Assembly, PM Khan said, "Humne America ka war on terror mai sath dia par hume jo jillat uthani padi... main nahi samajhta ki kabhi bhi koi mulq war on terror main saath de aur wo bura bhala bhi humain kahen. (US) Afghanistan main kamyab na hua toh uske liye bhi Pakistan jimmedar hai... openly. Hamara Pakistan ke liye do bahut hi sharminda vakiya hue...jo hum kabhi bhula nahi sakte. (We helped America in the ‘War on Terror’. For doing this, Pakistan faced grave humiliation. I can't understand how a country that participates in the ‘War on Terror’ still gets humiliated. When the US failed in Afghanistan, then too, blame was put on us).”
‘America Killed Bin Laden, Martyred Him’
“Ek hua Osama bin Laden ko Americans ne Abbottabad main maar diya...shaheed kar diya. Uske baad kya hua? Sari duniya ne hume gaaliyan di...bura bhala humain kaha. Yaani hamara ally hamare mulq main aake maar raha hai kisi ko aur hamain hi nahi bata raha. 70,000 Pakistani mar chuke hain unki jang ke liye. Yani itni jyada jillat. (America came and killed Osama Bin Laden in Abbottabad... martyred him. What happened after that? The entire world hurled abuses at us. Our own ally (US) entered our country and killed someone without even telling us about it. It was a big humiliation... More than 70,000 Pakistanis have already died in their (US) war)," Khan added, as per a report in Dawn.
The word ‘shaheed’ or martyr used by him created an uproar on social media with many questioning PM Khan’s intent behind saying this.
Bin Laden was the head of the global terror group Al-Qaeda and was the mastermind behind the 9/11 terror attacks on the United States in 2001. He was killed in a military operation by US Navy Seals in 2011.
(With inputs from Dawn, 24 News HD)
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