Islamabad:

Pakistan’s Primary Minister Imran Khan faced a rising backlash on Thursday just after he reported previous Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden experienced been “martyred”.

Imran Khan built the remark in parliament as he was describing the record of Pakistan’s troubled relations with the US considering that American exclusive forces killed bin Laden in 2011 in the northern city of Abbottabad.

“The People arrived to Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden. Martyred him,” Imran Khan mentioned.

The prime minister confronted blowback from opposition figures and observers subsequent the televised speech.

“Imran Khan has fiddled with record, declaring Osama bin Laden as a martyr nowadays,” previous foreign minister Khawaja Asif informed parliament.

“Muslims all about the earth are having difficulties simply because of the discrimination they experience due to recent terrorism & our PM can make it even worse by calling obl a martyr of Islam!” Meena Gabeena, a Pakistani activist, explained on Twitter.

Pakistan has formally denied recognizing bin Laden was hiding in the region right up until he was shot dead in a night-time raid on May perhaps 2, 2011.

The incident was a main national embarrassment and triggered currently-tenuous ties amongst the US and Pakistan to fray additional.

Asad Durrani, a former spymaster, informed Al Jazeera in 2015 that Pakistan’s strong Inter-Companies Intelligence (ISI) agency very likely understood exactly where he was hiding and hoped to use him as a bargaining chip.

The 9/11 mastermind was tracked down after a 10-yr manhunt to Abbottabad, a garrison town north of Islamabad the place Pakistan’s military academy is headquartered, sparking allegations authorities had been colluding with the terror group.

Imran Khan has manufactured repeated controversial statements about the years, which include through a journey to the US in 2019 when he claimed the ISI presented Washington with a guide that served them find and kill bin Laden.

The cricketer-turned leading has very long been criticised by opponents for overly sympathising with militants, with rivals after dubbing him “Taliban Khan”.