Bin Laden raid: Brig Ali offers to appear before Abbottabad panel

Brig Ali had raised certain questions during meeting of commanders of Pakistan Army at General Headquarters.

RAWALPINDI:

A retired army official, currently facing court martial proceedings on charges of conspiring to overthrow the government, has approached a commission probing the May 2 raid in Abbottabad to let him record his statement.

Brigadier (retd) Ali Khan has sent an application to the Abbottabad commission –  formed to investigate the US operation that led to the killing of Osama bin Laden –  to this effect.

Sharing details of the application, Brig Ali’s lawyer Col (retd) Inamur Raheem told The Express Tribune that his client was made the first victim after the Abbottabad operation. Adovocate Iman claimed that on May 5 last year, Brig Ali had raised certain questions during a meeting of commanders of the Pakistan Army at the General Headquarters, which led to his detention.

In his application, addressed to the head of the commission Justice (retd) Javed Iqbal, Brig Ali said he had many things to reveal and could not speak his mind, except before the commission.

He claimed that he was only being tried for speaking up before senior officers about the May 2 incident.

Calling the Kargil episode a starting point for the “international game for American hegemony,” the brigadier said the ouster of the elected government in 1999, the sharp turn in foreign policy after 9/11 and the subsequent military operation in Balochistan were pre-planned moves.

He further said that if summoned, he would speak his mind before the commission, for the sake of the country’s sovereignty.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 25^th, 2012.