Haqqani defends Pak decision to arrest CIA 'Osama bin Laden' informants

Washington, June 20(ANI): Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, has defended his nation's decision to arrest five informants who aided the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in tracking down Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden. One of the arrested informants was reported to be a Pakistani Army major who, officials said, copied license plates of cars visiting the Al-Qaeda chief's Abbottabad compound. "Pakistan has rounded up more than 30 people as part of the investigation about the Osama bin Laden compound," ABC News quoted Haqqani, as saying. "As far as the concern that there are people amongst the people that we have rounded up who are informants for the CIA, we will deal with them as we would deal with a friendly intelligence service, and we will resolve this to the satisfaction of our friends, as well as to our own laws," he added. Haqqani further insisted that the Pakistan government took such action to get details of the secret US military operation. "No one has been punished. Basically this is an exercise in trying to find out what has happened," he said. Bin Laden, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed in a top secret operation involving a small team of US Special Forces in Abbottabad on May 2. The Saudi-born terrorist, accused of being behind a number of atrocities, including the attacks on New York and Washington on 11 September 2001, was at the top of the US "most wanted" list. (ANI)