Army was unaware of Osama’s presence: Gen Hamid Javed

ISLAMABAD: Former President Pervez Musharraf’s Chief of Staff Lt Gen (R) Hamid Javed has said that the army was not aware of presence of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.
Commenting on report of a US journalist, he told The News that nobody including the army was aware of Osama’s presence as long as he remained the chief of staff in the Presidency. The US vice president visited Pakistan in 2007 to raise issue of Osama’s presence in Pakistan but his talks with Musharraf was limited to two points.
He told Musharraf that Osama is in Chitral according to US intelligence report and Musharraf replied that Pakistan will check the information as they did not have any such information. Javed said how could the world’s most wanted man remained hidden in Pakistan.
He said the army had arrested many leaders of al Qaeda including Abu Zubaida, Khalid Sheikh etc, adding that the state or the army was not aware of Osama’s presence in Pakistan. He said Musharraf had also told the US vice president that if drone attacks are allowed, the country will fall into conflict which is why drone attacks could not take place till 2007 but later the US was granted permission for it.