Imran Khan’s Osama bin Laden ‘martyr’ remark a slip of tongue: Pak minister

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan‘s comment on Osama bin Laden in which he called the slain terrorist a “martyr” was a “slip of the tongue,” said the country’s Federal Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry. While talking to Pakistan’s Geo News, Chaudhry said that Pakistan considers bin Laden a terrorist and al-Qaeda as a terrorist outfit.

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In his address to the National Assembly in June last year, Khan spoke about the US operation in Pakistan’s Abbottabad in which it killed bin Laden.

“Shaeed kar diya (he was martyred),” Khan said in his address, the video of which went viral on social media. Pakistan’s leader garnered widespread flak over his comments on bin Laden, the founder of the terrorist group al-Qaeda and the mastermind behind several attacks, including the 9/11 attack in the US.

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Meanwhile, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi also defended Khan’s statement recently. In an interview with Afghanistan’s Tolo News, Qureshi said that the PM’s statement was taken “out of context”.

“He was quoted out of context. And a particular section of the media played it up,” he said.

“I will let that pass,” Qureshi said when asked if he disagreed that bin Laden was a martyr. 

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In a military operation, US Navy Seals killed bin Laden in Pakistan’s garrison town Abbottabad in 2011.