WASHINGTON, May 5: The Ambassador of Pakistan, Mr Hussain Haqqani, promised a thorough probe into allegations some of which were reported in the US media on Thursday, claiming that active or retired Pakistani officials helped Osama bin Laden hide in Abbottabad.

“Pakistan will conduct a full inquiry into what his support network was, whether the support network was a private network, or whether it involved individuals working at any level in our police or security services or anywhere,” the ambassador told the Foreign Policy magazine. “We totally reject there was complicity as a policy decision. The only other two explanations are incompetence and overconfidence of our security services,” he added.

The US media quoted American and European intelligence officials as claiming that active or retired Pakistani military or intelligence officials had helped the Qaeda leader. And it was their support that allowed “him to stay hidden in a large compoundjust a mile from an elite military academy”.

Mr Haqqani said Pakistan would also try to determine if any Pakistani government personnel were helping Bin Laden but this investigation would be conducted solely by Pakistan, without direct US involvement.

While talking to a group of Pakistani journalists, Ambassador Haqqani described the Abbottabad raid as “a game-changer”, which will have as big an impact on US-Pakistan ties as the events of Sept. 11, 2011 had on world politics.

The Wall Street Journal quoted an European intelligence official as saying that he believed Bin Laden was “protected by some in the ISI”.

The ambassador confirmed that US Special Envoy Marc Grossman had asked President Zardari to hand over the contents of the compound and make available the Bin Laden family members left there.