Raid was a violation of sovereignty: Pak PM

ISLAMABAD, May 9(Agencies): Pakistan said Monday it was "absurd" to level accusations of complicity or incompetence over the discovery of Osama bin Laden in a garrison city and announced an official probe into the affair. In a speech to Islamabad's parliament, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani also affirmed the government's "full confidence in the military" and spy agency, which are accused of failing to spot bin Laden hiding under their nose. He has launched a defence of Pakistan's record in fighting terrorism, highlighting the "price paid" in civilian and military losses. And he strongly denied that there had been any collusion between Pakistan and al-Qaeda to shelter Bin Laden. "Allegations of complicity or incompetence are absurd. We emphatically reject such accusations," Gilani told lawmakers in a televised speech that follows widespread criticism in the United States and elsewhere since Bin Laden was found and killed in a US raid a week ago. Blaming "all intelligence agencies of the world" for failing to uncover Bin Laden's lair, Gilani reiterated the country's resolve to eliminate terrorism and said an inquiry had been ordered. He said the US raid was "a violation of sovereignty", and suggested that the US had helped create al-Qaeda during the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, and had then widely dispersed its fighters by followed a "flawed" military strategy in that country in 2001.