Pakistani Prime Minister Promises Bin Laden Investigation

Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told his government’s parliament Monday that an investigation has been opened to determine how terrorist leader Osama bin Laden was able to live in the country, but called allegations that Pakistani officials knew of bin Laden’s location “absurd.”

“We will not allow our detractors to succeed in offloading their own shortcomings and errors of omission and commission in a blame game that stigmatizes Pakistan,” Gilani said, noting that the failure to find bin Laden amounted to what he characterized as a global intelligence failure.

Gilani, who said that the killing of Osama bin Laden was justified, argued that Pakistan has been dedicated to the eradication of al Qaeda, citing 5,000 armed soldiers and 30,000 civilians who have been killed by terrorism.

The investigation will be led by Pakistani Lt. General Javed Iqbal.

The announcement follows an interview President Barack Obama had Sunday evening with 60 Minutes, wherein he said that both the U.S. and the Pakistani government would have to investigate.

Recent reports have revealed that some Pakistani security officials now believe that Bin Laden may have lived in the country for seven years. He was killed last week after U.S. forces discovered him in a compound in the Pakistani city of Abbotobad.

The strike has frayed Pakistani-U.S. relations on both ends. From a U.S. perspective, trust in the nation’s government has been called into question, whereas some in Pakistan have decried the attack on the bin Laden compound as a violation of the country’s sovereignty.