US operation probe: Abbottabad commission interviews acting IB, FIA chiefs

Commission also interviews Bin Laden’s family members who were left behind after the operation.

ISLAMABAD: The inquiry commission, formed to probe the May 2 US operation in Abbottabad, has completed interviews of the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa chief secretary and acting directors general of the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA).

The commission met on Tuesday, with former senior judge of the Supreme Court Justice Javed Iqbal in the chair, to question the officials on their perspective over what Pakistani authorities claimed was a unilateral operation by the US.

Constituted almost a month since the covert operation that killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, the commission has already interviewed officials of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), including its chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha, as well as officials of the Pakistan Air Force.

The commission has also interviewed Bin Laden’s family members who were left behind after the operation and lifted the bar on their travel.

On the recommendation of the commission, authorities have registered a high treason case against a doctor who had allegedly collaborated with US intelligence agencies in locating Bin Laden in his compound, where he was eventually killed by the special American forces on May 2.

Another important meeting of the commission will be held on Wednesday (today) to record the statements of the director general MI and the K-P Inspector General Police.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 12^th, 2011.