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AFP
Imran Khan referred to Bin Laden during a speech in the National Assembly on Thursday.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has actually come under fire from opposition MPs after informing parliament that the US “martyred” Osama Bin Laden.
Bin Laden, the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, was killed in 2011 when US special forces robbed his hideout in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad.
Pakistan was not informed in advance.
” I will never forget how we Pakistanis were ashamed when the Americans came into Abbottabad and killed Osama Bin Laden, martyred him,” Khan said.
Khan used the word “shaheed” – a reverential Arabic term for a martyr of Islam.
Opposition leader and previous Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif criticised Mr Khan, calling Bin Laden an “supreme terrorist”.
” He damaged my country, and [Khan] is calling him a martyr,” Mr Asif said in parliament.
Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, whose Pakistan Peoples Party was in power when Bin Laden was killed, implicated the prime minister of appeasing violent extremism.
Meena Gabeena, a prominent Pakistani activist, composed on Twitter: “Muslims all over the world are having a hard time since of the discrimination they deal with due to current terrorism and our PM