With India’s Muslim population being the third largest in the world.

NEW DELHI: The most wanted terrorist of the world, Osama bin Laden’s killing by American operatives in Pakistan has not pleased all in India. A section of prominent Indian Muslim leaders have come to question the claim that Laden was a terrorist.

As the news broke of Osama bin Laden’s death in an American operation in Abbotabad in Pakistan, Muslim organisations in India initially reacted with incredulity, citing US operations in Tora Bora as a precedent where claims of Osama’s death had later been proved to be false.

It took statements from home minister P Chidambaram and Pakistani MP Sherry Rehman to convince them of the veracity of these reports. Once the news sank in, the prominent Muslim leaders said that Bin Laden was definitely not a terrorist but a one-time American ally with whom relations had soured because he had lost his utility.

Syed Ahmed Bukhari, Imam of Jama Masjid said: “When did any court of law in the world convict Laden of terrorist activities. It is only America’s assertion and that of the NATO that he was one. Why should we believe them. As for the government of India’s reactions, I would want to know their views on what is happeninhg in Palestine even now when thousands of Muslims are being killed by Israel with the American help. The killing is a continuation of the US interference in Libya, Iraq and Palestine.”