Abbottabad commission: Military Intelligence boss, K-P police chief quizzed

Statements of home secretary K-P and adjutant general GHQ to be recorded.

ISLAMABAD: The judicial commission investigating the May 2 raid by US commandos in Abbottabad interviewed the director general of Military Intelligence (MI) and Inspector General of Police Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa on Wednesday to record their perspectives on the operation that killed the al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

The commission on Wednesday interviewed the government officials at the Cabinet Division which is being used as its secretariat and conducted what it called ‘exhaustive’ interviews of the DG MI Maj-Gen Nadeem Ijaz and IGP K-P.

The commission, headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal and comprising Abbas Khan, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi and Lt-Gen (retd) Nadeem Ahmed will meet again today (Thursday) and record statements of Home Secretary K-P and Adjutant General GHQ, Rawalpindi.

The commission has been holding meetings on a regular basis to probe the US operation which Pakistani authorities claim was a unilateral action carried out without the consent of the government or military and also that they were oblivious to Bin Laden’s presence in Abbottabad.

Additionally, the commission also said that a doctor, Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA track the al Qaeda chief, should be put on trial for high treason. The commission has visited the Osama compound and interviewed a number of high officials, including the chief of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and also family members of the slain al Qaeda chief. It also carried out detailed examination/inspection of recovered items and material evidence from the OBL compound.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 13^th, 2011.