May 2 raid: Abbottabad panel report expected by month-end

The report will be given ‘final touches’ next week.

ISLAMABAD:

A meeting of the Abbottabad inquiry commission held on Tuesday chalked out a plan for submitting its final report to the government in coming weeks.

According to sources, the commission is likely to complete the probe into the May 2 raid in Abbottabad, which killed al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, by the end of January.

Once the inquiry and interrogation sessions end, the process of formulating the report may take another week, after which it finally will be presented to the government.

Sources added that next week a couple of meetings will be held for putting ‘final touches’ to the report.

Sources privy to the meetings that have taken place so far, said that the finalisation of the report is very complicated and may take more time than is anticipated.

They added that although the members agreed to make the content of the report public seeing that it is a matter of national security, it is ultimately the government’s decision. However, sources added, the government is unlikely to make the findings public.

Tuesday’s meeting was held in the cabinet division under the chairmanship of former senior judge of the Supreme Court justice Javed Iqbal. The commission held a detailed interactive session with prominent people, including Javed Chaudhry, Tahir Khalil, Tariq Chaudhry, Ikram Sehgal, Asif Bashir Chaudhry, Mushahid Hussain Syed, Kanwar Muhammad Dilshad and Kamran Ishtiaq.

The commission has so far questioned over 100 witnesses, including military and security officials, former foreign secretaries and ministers, police and intelligence officials, former ambassador Husain Haqqani, Bin Laden’s family, neighbours, and media personnel in Islamabad and from Abbottabad, in over 30 sessions.

Published in The Express Tribune, January 4^th, 2012.