Pakistan Foreign Office Formally Protests Bin Laden Raid to US Ambassador

The Pakistani government has formally filed a protest with the U.S. over the allegedly unsanctioned commando raid by Navy SEALs which resulted in the killing of Osama bin Laden and others at a compound in northern Pakistan last week.

According to Dawn, an English language newspaper in Pakistan, the country’s Foreign Office summoned the US ambassador, Cameron Munter, to lodge the protest.

Pakistan’s Foreign Affairs Secretary Salman Bashir reportedly told Munter that the raid in Abbottabad represented a violation of the country’s security and sovereignty and that Pakistan “will not tolerate:” any such operation or violation of its airspace in the future.

Bashir asserted that Pakistani authorities should have been made aware of the plot to kill bin Laden.

Munter reportedly emphasized the need for better relations between the two countries, but also wanted more detailed answers on what Islamabad knew about bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan.

Nonetheless, Munter reportedly will convey Bashir's reservations to the Obama Administration.

However, according to a report in The Nation, another English language Pakistani newspaper, the US Embassy in Pakistan denied that the ambassador was summoned by the Foreign Office and that no letter of protest was handed to him.