Sydney, July 9 : The retired chief of Pakistan's ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) Gen Ziauddin Butt has alleged that former Pakistani Intelligence Bureau chief Brigadier Ijaz Shah harboured Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan for years with the approval of the the president Gen Pervez Musharraf, Sydney Morning Herald reported.
According to the newsaper, retd Gen Butt said; "I fully believe that Ijaz Shah had kept this man [Osama bin Laden, in Abbottabad] with the full knowledge of Pervez Musharraf."
General Butt said that the Abbottabad compound was built on the orders of Brigadier Shah.
"The most important and all-powerful person in [the] Musharraf regime was Brigadier Ijaz Shah, then Intelligence Bureau chief," the paper quoted General Butt, as saying.
Brigadier Shah, however, said that the allegations were baseless. "Not only do I reject it, but any sensible man in the world will reject this allegation," the paper quoted Shah, as saying.
"I retired on March 18, 2008, the Abbottabad incident took place in May 2011, more than three years later. How is it possible that I am involved in this? The general knows that this is not true," Shah added.
Brigadier Shah said in more than a year since bin Laden's death, no evidence had been produced that he was harbouring him or knew of his whereabouts.
"The whole world has been looking to see who knew about this, but they have not found any proof", the paper quoted him, as saying.
Brigadier Shah, now in his mid-60s, is a man with strong links with Australia. His children studied in Melbourne and Sydney, and, in the weeks after Bhutto's death he reportedly left Pakistan for Australia for several months, it added.
Ijaz Shah was also a dinner guest at Government House in Canberra in June 5 and was one of Pakistani's President Pervez Musharraf's staff during the latter's visit to the country.
In 2004, President Musharraf had nominated Shah to be High Commissioner to Australia. He was rejected by Canberra, it is understood, out of concern over his links to terrorists, the paper said.
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