Pakistan blocks Al-Jazeera website after Osama report leak

Pakistan blocked the website of Al-Jazeera on Tuesday after it leaked a controversial report about Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden's decade-long stay in the country before he was killed by United States special forces at his Abbottabad hideout.

The Qatar-based broadcaster uploaded a report by Pakistani investigators on Monday detailing official failure to check bin Laden's free movement and unhindered stay at several places before killed in secret US raid in garrison town of Abbotabad in 2010.

Official sources said that Pakistan telecommunication authority, the country's telecom watchdog, asked the private Internet service providers to block the website for the time being. The orders were not fully implemented as at several places the website was running uninterrupted including at the office of Al-Jazeera in Islamabad.

At some places in the capital Islamabad and other cities people faced problems accessing the website. Ahmad Ali, an Internet cafe owner in Rawalpindi near Islamabad, said that his customers complained that they could not access the website.

A PTA official, however, rejected reports that they had asked for suspension. "We did not ask anyone to block the service to any website," said PTA spokesperson Kurrum Mehran.

The report by the Abbottabad commission has taken a shot at the official failure of national security agencies to trace the most wanted man roaming in busy streets without any security guards.

Image: A supporter of Osama bin Laden at a rally in Pakistan

Photograph: Reuters