May 2 raid: Abbottabad commission records statements of officials

The commission will record statements of 500 people.

ABOTTABAD: The Abbottabad judicial commission continued its investigation into the May 2 US incursion and recorded statements of officials of various government departments and two army officers.

The commission was on a three-day visit to Abbottabad and was residing at the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa House.

Members of the commission earlier visited the compound of the house where Osama bin Laden lived, Tarbela air base, Pakistan Military Academy, Kakul and the Kundar village in Torghar district, formerly known as Kala Dhaka.

Headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, the commission comprises Lt-Gen (retd) Nadeem Ahmed, former police inspector-general (IG) Abbas Khan and former ambassador to the US Ashraf Jehangir Qazi.

The judicial commission recorded the statements of the regional manager of the Sui Northern Gas Naseer Feroz, Abbottabad District Officer (Revenue) Fareed Khan, SSP (investigation wing) Mian Raza Kakakhel, Torghar Administrator Abdul Ghafoor, Hazara police DIG Dr Muhammad Naeem Khan, PTCL General Manager Muhammad Usman and Col Khalid and Col Arshad of Pakistan Army, certain officials of the Khasadar force and civilian eyewitnesses of Torghar district.

The inquiry commission will record statements of 500 people who have voluntarily expressed interest in recording their statements pertaining to the May 2 US midnight raid in Abbottabad.

On Tuesday, chief of the judicial commission Justice (retd) Iqbal said that investigation into the incident was the second most important in Pakistan’s history after the 1971 debacle entrusted to the Hamoodur Rehman Commission and vowed to make its findings public.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 15^th,  2011.