News of the United States killing al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has so far not created any turmoil in Pakistan, press attache for the Russian Embassy in Islamabad Evgeny Yeliseyev said on Monday.
“Terrorist Number 1” bin Laden was killed during a U.S. military operation just 50 kilometers outside Islamabad in the city of Abbottabad. There were no military personnel losses during the U.S.-Pakistani joint operation.
U.S. President Barack Obama made an official statement on bin Laden’s death to the nation late on Sunday.
“The situation is very calm in the city at this time; there are no protests in line with [U.S. President Barack Obama’s] announcement. We’ll have to wait and see what happens,” Yeliseyev told RIA Novosti.
Pakistan has repeatedly denied that bin Laden was in the country. There have been so far no official statements from Islamabad on the military operation to kill bin Laden.
One of the world’s most odious terrorists, bin Laden, who was on the FBI’s most wanted list, had been behind the deadly September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in the United States that killed nearly 3,000 people.
“Tonight I can report to the American people and the world that the United States has conducted an operation that has killed Osama bin Laden,” Obama said in a television address to the nation late on Sunday night in Washington.
“Last August, after years of work by our intelligence community, I was briefed on a possible lead on bin Laden. And last week, I determined we had enough intelligence to take action. Today, at my direction, the U.S. launched a targeted operation on the Pakistan compound [where bin Laden was residing],” he said.
NEW DELHI, May 2 (RIA Novosti)