Pakistan summoned the US Chargé d'Affaires in Islamabad on Tuesday after President Donald Trump's tweets on Pakistan's role in fighting terrorism and the capture of Osama bin Laden.
"The Foreign Secretary called in the US CdA Ambassador Paul Jones to register a strong protest on the unwarranted and unsubstantiated allegations made against Pakistan. Rejecting the insinuations about OBL [Osama bin Laden], Foreign Secretary reminded the US CdA that it was Pakistan’s intelligence cooperation that provided the initial evidence to trace the whereabouts of OBL," Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said in a statement, adding that "baseless rhetoric about Pakistan was totally unacceptable":
The statement came shortly after Trump tweeted that Pakistan hadn't given 'anything to the US in return' for billions of dollars in aid, and suggested that Pakistani authorities knew al-Qaeda's ex-leader Osama bin Laden's whereabouts before his killing by US special forces in 2011 in a raid on his house in Pakistan.
Of course we should have captured Osama Bin Laden long before we did. I pointed him out in my book just BEFORE the attack on the World Trade Center. President Clinton famously missed his shot. We paid Pakistan Billions of Dollars & they never told us he was living there. Fools!..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 19 November 2018
….We no longer pay Pakistan the $Billions because they would take our money and do nothing for us, Bin Laden being a prime example, Afghanistan being another. They were just one of many countries that take from the United States without giving anything in return. That’s ENDING!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 19 November 2018
Earlier, Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan took to the virtual space to blast Trump's remark, saying that he needed to learn such historical facts that no Pakistanis were involved in the 9/11 terrorist attack, and that the country joined the US War on Terror, having suffered some 75,000 casualties:
Record needs to be put straight on Mr Trump's tirade against Pakistan: 1. No Pakistani was involved in 9/11 but Pak decided to participate in US War on Terror. 2. Pakistan suffered 75,000 casualties in this war & over $123 bn was lost to economy. US "aid" was a miniscule $20 bn.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) 19 November 2018
Instead of making Pakistan a scapegoat for their failures, the US should do a serious assessment of why, despite 140000 NATO troops plus 250,000 Afghan troops & reportedly $1 trillion spent on war in Afghanistan, the Taliban today are stronger than before.
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) 19 November 2018
Trump’s false assertions add insult to the injury Pak has suffered in US WoT in terms of lives lost & destabilised & economic costs. He needs to be informed abt historical facts. Pak has suffered enough fighting US's war. Now we will do what is best for our people & our interests
— Imran Khan (@ImranKhanPTI) 19 November 2018
POTUS also slammed the former special operations commander, Lt. Gen. William McRaven, for failing to capture bin Laden sooner than 2011.
Tensions between the two countries escalated after the US announced it would be cutting Pakistan's financial support by $800 million.
