Islamabad:

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani says that long before US commandos killed the feared al-Qaeda leader in Abbottabad in 2011, former US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice She has expressed her concerns to the Pakistani government that Osama bin Laden is hiding in Pakistan.

Mr Gilani served as Prime Minister of Pakistan from 2008 to 2012.

Ms. Rice visited Pakistan four times during her tenure. She made a surprise visit to Islamabad in the first week of December 2008 and met Mr Gilani after holding talks in New Delhi shortly after the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks.

“Condoleezza Rice has visited Pakistan and she is concerned that he (bin Laden) is in Pakistan,” Mr Gilani told Geo News in an interview ahead of Pakistan’s February 8 general election on Thursday.

Asked how he responded to Ms Rice’s message, Mr Gilani said: “When she shared this information, I said it was false information.” Osama bin Laden is the world’s most notorious man One of the terrorist leaders was killed by the US Navy SEALs in a covert operation on May 2, 2011. The 54-year-old Saudi-born militant leader is holed up in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad. Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Ms. Rice, 69, is an American educator and politician who served as national security adviser (2001-05) and secretary of state (2005-09) to U.S. President George W. Bush. She is currently Director of the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.

Mr. Gilani, 71, served as the 18th Prime Minister of Pakistan. He is a senior leader of the Pakistan People’s Party and was elected to the Senate in 2021.

Asked whether it was shocking that bin Laden was found in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad, Gilani said it was a failure of world intelligence.

Responding to a question whether he believed it was US intelligence relayed to him through Ms Rice, Mr Gilani said: “If they had any evidence they should have given it to us. We would have helped them because we are against terror Doctrine, we are engaged in a war on terror, and we have lost many precious lives of military personnel and civilians, and we have also lost billions of dollars.”

Mr Gilani was asked about a speech he gave to Pakistan’s National Assembly questioning bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan. He responded that Pakistan’s motive was to prevent international media coverage because bin Laden was not a Pakistani citizen but came from abroad.

Asked whether the ISI (spy agency) had given him the full story on bin Laden or if the entire story had not been shared with him, Ms Gilani replied that he “used to receive briefings and they were very clear”.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)