Imran Khan says Pakistan was 'humiliated' over Osama bin Laden, and his killing was 'cold-blooded murder'
Imran Khan, the former Pakistan cricket captain, says Osama bin Laden's death was "cold-blooded murder" and argues that the West should pull its forces out of the region.
Sitting on the veranda of his magnificent hill-top home high above the Pakistan capital of Islamabad, Imran Khan told me of the "humiliation" his country now feels that Osama bin Laden was found hiding in a Pakistan army garrison town.
He said that with bin Laden dead it was time for Britain and the United States to quit Afghanistan – and called for an instant halt to the drone attacks on militants living in the tribal regions of Pakistan.
And, in a highly inflammatory allegation, the former Pakistan cricket captain accused American forces of committing "cold-blooded murder" when they shot dead the unarmed bin Laden in front of his wife and children.
Mr Khan said that the United States had abandoned civilised values and the rule of law, behaved "like cowboys", and as a result was helping the dead al-Qaeda chief to become a "martyr". And he spoke of "seething anger" in Pakistan as a result of the episode.
In a wide ranging interview, Mr Khan told me of his ambition to become prime minister of Pakistan after the coming national elections, expressed his disgust at what he called the "corruption" of the Pakistan political class and what he called "their complete subservience to the United States".