Islamabad: American Journalist Peter Bergen books the whole infamous Abbottabad raid story when incursion by US SEALs assassinated Al-Qaeda Chief Osama bin Laden in his recently-published book ‘Manhunt: From 9/11 to Abbottabad – The Ten-Year Search for Osama Bin Laden’.
Bergen accounts the controversial Abbottabad incident in a lively manner and claims that Pakistan Army Chief General Ashfaq Pervez Kayani told his closest colleagues that this was the “worst week of his life”.
Following is an excerpt from his book that issued lately,
[It was 1:00 am, May 2, 2011.
Army Chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani’s phone rang.
It was his director of military operations. The news was alarming: a helicopter had just crashed near a residential compound in Abbottabad – a region of the country that is thick with military installations and nuclear weapons facilities.
General Kayani called the head of the Pakistani Air Force and ordered him to intercept anyone who might be flying that night. Two US manufactured F-16s were scrambled from their base 500 miles southwest of Abbottabad, but the jets could not find the intruders.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama called President Asif Ali Zardari and told him the gripping news. Zardari became emotional and replied: “I am happy because these are the same types of people who killed my wife, and her people are my family, so I share in this.”
Then US Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen finally got through to General Kayani on a secure line. Kayani’s response was not much different from President Zardari’s.
“Congratulations,” Kayani immediately said upon hearing news. However, the discussion lasted a tense 20 minutes in which the army chief said he was concerned about the violation of Pakistani sovereignty and urged that Obama go out as soon as possible and explain what had happened.]
There is a list of astonishing claims being made in the book by US Journalist. He claims that Pakistan’s top military and civilian leadership were left clueluss initially about what was happening in Abbottabad until US officials informed them they had raided a compound in Abbottabad and killed Osama Bin Laden.
He mentions in the book that Pakistani military authorities were so naïve at the instant that they first thought that India might have attempted a pre-emptive’ strike against Pakistan’s nuclear facilities.
Peter also claims that at the very moment General Kayani asked himself disgracefully, “How could my friend Admiral Mullen not have told me about the raid?”
General Kayani’s and his spy master General Pasha’s job seemed at risk as they lose support from both inside the army and from the people in general, journalist claims in the chronicle.