Osama bin Laden: ‘Stop govt from handing over body'

Petition filed in LHC also challenging US action on Pak soil as illegal.

LAHORE: A petition has been filed in the Lahore High Court seeking directions to the federal government not to hand over Osama Bin Laden’s body to American authorities.

The Al Qaeda leader was killed in an operation conducted by American special forces in Abbottabad on Sunday night. Barrister Mohammed Javaid Iqbal Jaffree filed the petition on Monday seeking to stop the government from allowing Bin Laden’s body to leave the country. He appeared not to believe a statement by US authorities that Bin Laden’s body had been buried at sea.

The petition also challenged the US military action on Pakistani territory as a violation of the sovereignty of the country and of international law.

Jaffree asked the court to direct the government to arrest and take action against those who had tipped-off the US about Bin Laden’s presence in Pakistan. He also asked the court to seek a report from the government about the US operation in Abbottabad.

There were several unsubstantiated claims in the petition. Jaffree said there were reports that the US armed forces had captured at least 120 people, including two of Bin Laden’s wives, in the operation. He said six “disguised Americans” were also killed in the “staged performance”. He said the location of the operation close the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul was “a well-designed slap in the face of the Pakistani military establishment”. He said there was also a “suggestion” that Bin Laden had been arrested somewhere along the Pak-Afghan border and brought to Abbottabad “for show business purposes”.

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2011.