The inquiry commission set up to investigate the May 2 US operation in Abbottabad interviewed on Tuesday the head of a foreign NGO to further probe the incident which left al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden dead.
Save the Children Country Director David Wright appeared before the commission for a detailed interview on Tuesday. The four-member commission headed by Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal holds its proceedings in-camera and releases only sketchy details to the media, such as the names of those being summoned or questioned.
The motive behind calling in the country director of Save the Children still hasn’t been ascertained by the media. However, it is believed that some members in the Pakistani security establishment have accused officials affiliated with international NGOs of carrying out undercover activities in the country. The commission has been given the mandate of summoning any person, civilian or military official, during the course of the investigation.
The commission earlier directed the government to institute a high treason case against a doctor who allegedly collaborated with American intelligence agencies in locating the world’s most wanted man in Abbottabad. Dr Shakeel Afridi, who is currently in the custody of security agencies, ran a fake polio vaccination drive on behalf of the CIA in a bid to obtain DNA samples of Bin Laden’s family in Abbottabad, months before the al Qaeda chief was killed.
During its proceedings on Tuesday, the commission also questioned Director Military Lands and Cantonment Department, Rawalpindi Region Farrukh Masood Khan and a local resident of Abbottabad, Sohaib Athar. The compound where OBL was allegedly found and killed is located in a cantonment area of the garrison city. The commission has already interviewed the chief executive of the cantonment department in Abbottabad.
The commission is due to meet again today (Wednesday) to likely interview incumbent Interior Secretary Siddique Akbar and his predecessor Qamar Zaman Chaudhry who held the position at the time of the operation.
Published in The Express Tribune, November 2nd, 2011.
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