Former information minister Fawad Chaudhry on Saturday asked if the government allowed the United States to use Pakistani airspace to conduct the Kabul drone strike that killed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.
In a tweet, Fawad said: “the question is not if Pakistani soil was used for the Afghanistan drone attack, the question is whether permission was granted for Pakistan’s airspace to be used.”
Earlier on Friday, Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) Director General Major General Babar Iftikhar said there was “no question” of Pakistani soil being used in connection with Al-Qaeda chief Ayman Al-Zawahiri’s killing. “The foreign ministry has issued a clear statement regarding Ayman Al-Zawahiri. It is impossible that Pakistan’s soil has been used for this,” Babar had told a private television channel.
United States President Joe Biden had announced on Monday that a precision drone strike in downtown Kabul has killed Zawahiri, who helped orchestrate the 9/11 attacks. Zawahiri, an Egyptian surgeon had a $25 million bounty on his head for his role in the attacks that led to the death of nearly 3,000 people.
According to US officials who spoke to Reuters on the condition of anonymity, Zawahiri was killed when he stepped out on the balcony of his safe house in Kabul on Sunday morning. It was there that he was killed by Hellfire missiles launched from a US drone.
