ISLAMABAD, Pakistan — Prime Minister Imran Khan of Pakistan was criticized by opposition lawmakers after making a speech to Parliament in which he said Osama bin Laden had been “martyred” by the United States when it killed the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks in 2011. Mr. Khan was rebuked for his remarks, which included jibes at the United States, and for the reverence he showed Bin Laden by suggesting that he was a martyr, a term of veneration in Islam used to describe those killed defending the faith. “We sided with the U.S. in the war on terror but they came here and killed him, martyred him,” Mr. Khan said in the speech on Thursday. The prime minister at first said Bin Laden was merely “killed” by the Americans, but quickly corrected himself to say the leader of Al Qaeda was “martyred.”

Source: New York Times June 26, 2020 18:00 UTC