The Pakistan government and its armed forces played a vital role in tracking down al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden through a mobile phone SIM, says Defence Minister Ahmed Mukhtar.
Ahmed Mukhtar said it was Pakistan's armed forces that had weakened the Al Qaeda's terror network, DawnNews reported on Thursday.
He told BBC Urdu Service that Osama was hunted down through a mobile phone's SIM/chip, which was found 'fortuitously'.
Mukhtar said Pakistan was bound by a contract with the US to hand over all Arabic and English data found during the search for Osama. Similarly, the US too was to provide all Urdu data to Pakistan for intelligence sharing purposes.
He said the military was currently looking into material recovered from the compound in Abbottabad where Osama was killed by US special forces May 2 2011.