A skeleton rattling in cupboard

Bin Laden raid and Pakistani intelligence services

The entire country was stunned by the news of the US Navy SEALs having raided a premises in Abbottabad where they had killed Osama bin Laden and flown back with his dead body. This led to numerous questions which have remained unanswered ever since. An Inquiry Commission subsequently set up prepared a report which was not made public.

The story on the subject by a widely respected Pulitzer Prize winning investigative journalist Samuel Hersh has made dramatic revelations which would leave many Pakistanis bewildered. According to Hersh, OBL was in the custody of ISI since 2006. His location remained a secret till a high ranking Pakistani intelligence official walked into CIA Station Commander’s office in Islamabad and promised to reveal Al Qaeda Chief’s whereabouts in return for political asylum and the $25 million bounty promised by the US. If Hersh is right, the identity and reputation of the real informant continues to be protected by the institution which he betrayed while Shakil Afridi languishes in jail. According to Hersh, Dr Amir Aziz, an army Major, was the person who had taken OBL’s blood samples to determine his identity.

Hersh maintains that the Abbottabad operation was conducted with the help and connivance of the then ISI Chief Lt Gen Shuja Pasha and Gen Kayani. The two were promised by the US that the announcement regarding OBL’s killing would be made many days later and it would be given out that he was captured outside Pakistan. With the presidential elections approaching it suited Obama to instantly announce the news and maintain that the Al Qaeda chief was taken out in Abbottabad. This reportedly shocked both Kayani and Pasha.

Gen Durrani’s remarks lend further credibility to the story. He is reported to have told Hersh, ‘What you’ve told me is essentially what I have heard from former colleagues who have been on a fact-finding mission since this episode.” There is a dire need under the circumstances for Gen Pasha and Gen Kayani to respond to the claims.