Former president Pervez Musharraf knew that Osama bin Laden was hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad and the Pakistani intelligence itself had made the safe house that sheltered him, a former ISI chief has alleged. 

Former CIA official Bruce Riedel quoted ex-ISI chief Gen (retired) Ziauddin Khwaja alias Ziauddin Butt, as saying that Musharraf "knew bin Laden was in Abbottabad".

In an article for The Daily Beast website, Riedel further quoted Butt as saying that bin Laden's safe house in Abbottabad "was made to order" by Brig Ijaz Shah, a former head of the Intelligence Bureau.

"Ziauddin says Ijaz Shah was responsible for setting up bin Laden in Abbottabad, ensuring his safety and keeping him hidden from the outside. And Ziauddin says Musharraf knew all about it," Riedel wrote in the article.

However, Butt told the Geo News channel today that he had been misquoted in the article. 

US Special Forces killed the al Qaeda chief in a pre-dawn raid on a compound in Abbottabad, located a short distance from the elite Pakistan Military Academy, in May last year. Bin Laden reportedly lived in the walled compound in Abbottabad for five years.