In its first news conference since the architect of the September 11, 2001 attacks was gunned down by US commandos north of Islamabad early Monday, Pakistan´s government said it was in the vanguard of fighting militancy.[break]
"It´s easy to say that the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) or elements within the government were in cahoots with the Al-Qaeda," top foreign ministry official Salman Bashir said.
"This is a false hypothesis. This is a false charge. It cannot be validated on any account and it flies in the face of what Pakistanis and in particular the Inter-Services Intelligence has been able to accomplish," he said.
In Washington and beyond there is incredulity that bin Laden could have found shelter in Pakistan´s leafy garrison town of Abbottabad, under the noses of the military establishment just two hours´ drive from the capital.
Some US lawmakers are demanding a cut to the billions in aid that flow to Pakistan each year, which is meant to shore up both nations´ uneasy alliance as US-led forces fight the Taliban in Pakistan´s neighbour Afghanistan.
CIA chief Leon Panetta has said Washington kept Islamabad in the dark about the bin Laden raid for fear of the Al-Qaeda chief being tipped off.
Pakistan´s civilian leadership and intelligence officials have scorned accusations that the country provides safe haven to extremists, but some newspapers noted a sense of national shame after the discovery of bin Laden.
In an editorial, the top-selling daily Jang said it was "heartbreaking" for the public to find out that the ISI was seemingly ignorant of his true location in a fortified compound close to an elite military academy in Abbottabad.
But in a country where anti-US sentiment runs deep, there is also rampant scepticism about the US version of events, which has been fuelled by the White House´s decision not to release gruesome photographs of bin Laden´s body.
Citing national security risks, President Barack Obama said Wednesday that the United States should not brandish "trophies" of its victory.
"It is important for us to make sure that very graphic photos of somebody who was shot in the head are not floating around as an incitement to additional violence, as a propaganda tool," Obama told CBS programme "60 Minutes".
"That´s not who we are. You know, we don´t trot out this stuff as trophies," Obama said, arguing that DNA and facial recognition testing had proved beyond doubt that the Saudi-born extremist was dead.
The "very graphic" nature of the scene described by Obama appeared to be shown in photos obtained by the Reuters news agency of three unidentified dead men in the Abbottabad house -- none of whom resembled bin Laden.
Reuters said it had bought the pictures from a Pakistani security official who entered the bin Laden compound shortly after the raid occurred.
The dead men were lying in large pools of blood. One, dressed in a T-shirt, had blood streaming from his right ear. According to its time stamp, that photo was taken at 2:30 am, about 50 minutes after US officials said the raid ended.
The two others were wearing traditional Pakistani gowns. One had blood spilling from his mouth and chin, and there was a computer cable and what appeared to be a child´s water pistol at his right shoulder.
The third man had blood collecting from his nose and there was also a thick band of blood around the middle of his white shalwar kameez.
Aside from bin Laden, US and Pakistani officials say four people were killed in the raid -- including two brothers who were trusted Al-Qaeda couriers and one believed to have been a son of bin Laden.
Other pictures taken in early daylight showed the trash-strewn grounds of the compound and the tail of a wrecked helicopter believed to be part of a top-secret stealth helicopter programme.
One of bin Laden´s children, now in custody along with a Yemeni wife of the slain Al-Qaeda leader, saw her father shot dead, a Pakistani intelligence official said.
The girl, reported to be 12 years old, "was the one who confirmed to us that Osama was dead and shot and taken away", said the Pakistani official.
Even without photographic proof, hardline religious groups in Pakistan have offered prayers for bin Laden, rather than taken to the streets insisting he is still alive.
But Jamaat-e-Islami, the country´s oldest religious party, gave vent to a widespread sense of national shame that US forces had struck with impunity deep into Pakistani territory.
"It was a clear violation of our sovereignty, it was an act of aggression even if Osama bin Laden was there or not," said Khurshid Ahmed, the party´s vice president.
Bin Laden´s body was buried at sea off a US warship to prevent any grave on land from becoming an extremist shrine. The Abbottabad villa that served as his lair has instead become a macabre monument for locals and media alike.
"More and more people are coming," Mohammad Saleem, a senior police officer at the site, told AFP. There has been no unrest so far, he said, while adding: "We have no way to know who´s a potential Osama supporter and who´s not."
President Obama was to lay a wreath in memory of the 9/11 victims during a visit Thursday to Ground Zero, where the World Trade Center towers were turned into an inferno and toppled by airliners hijacked by Al-Qaeda operatives.
The White House said he would meet victims´ families and first responders in private but would not make a speech, in an apparent sign he is wary of his trip being seen as an overtly political affair.
"He wants to meet with them and share with them this important and significant moment, a bitter-sweet moment, I think, for many families of the victims," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.
While quietly rejoicing at the elimination of America´s most wanted man, the Obama administration has been forced to defend the legality of the raid, after acknowledging that bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot through the head.
UN human rights chief Navi Pillay said the United Nations, while condemning terrorism, demanded that anti-terror operations comply with international law.
"I´m still for a full disclosure of the accurate facts" regarding the raid, she told reporters in Oslo.
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