Pak army had links with Al-Qaida, Taliban: Ex-US Prez Obama

WASHINGTON: Former US President Barack Obama has said that he had ruled out involving Pakistan in the raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout because it was an “open secret” that certain elements inside Pakistan’s military, and especially its intelligence services, maintained links with the Taliban and perhaps even the Al-Qaida, sometimes using them as strategic assets against Afghanistan and India.

Giving a blow-by-blow account of the Abbottabad raid by American commandos that killed the world’s most wanted terrorist on May 2, 2011, in his latest book “A Promised Land”, the former US President said the top secret operation was opposed by the then Defence Secretary Robert Gates and his former Vice-President Joe Biden, who is now the President-elect.

In the book that hit the stands globally on Tuesday, America’s first Black President described the various options of killing Osama.

“It was an open secret that certain elements inside the country’s military maintained links with the Taliban and perhaps even Al-Qaida, sometimes using them as assets to ensure that the Afghan government remained weak and unable to align itself with Pakistan’s number one rival, India,” Obama said. — PTI