Washington: In a major embarrassment for the Nawaz Sharif government, former US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Tuesday said she believes that the Pakistani establishment knew about slain al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad.
Speaking to CNN, the Democratic front-runner said, “We couldn't link top establishment of Pakistan military having connection with Osama, but it wouldn't have been impossible for the Qaeda boss to build such a big house without Pakistani establishment's knowledge.”
Osama, who was staying in a fortified compound in Abbottabad, a small military town less than a 100 kilometres from Pakistan's capital Islamabad, was killed in an operation on the intervening night of May 01 and 02 by the commandos of US Navy Seals Team 6.
They had flown in from Afghanistan on two Black Hawks and the whole operation lasted a little over three hours.
Later US President Barack Obama broke the story to the world in a late night press conference and confirmed that the leader of al Qaeda had been killed in an operation carried out by them.
In another jolt to the Nawaz government, the Obama administration has asked Pakistan to "put forward" its "national funds" to buy the eight F-16 fighter jets as some top American Senators have put a hold on use of the US tax payers' money for this purpose.
