Pak establishment may have been complicit in harboring Osama in Abbottabad: Report

While the judicial commission on Osama bin Laden may not have found any direct evidence of state collusion in the harbouring of Osama bin Laden in the country for over nine years, there are many who believe that his prolonged stay could not have been possible without the active sanction of the all-powerful establishment in the country.

According to a report in The Christian Science Monitor, there had to be some degree of collusion between the former military, intelligence and government officials of Pakistan with the al-Qaeda leader, that helped him to stay hidden in Abbottabad for close to a decade.

The Abbottabad Commission was ordered by the Pakistan parliament for an independent enquiry to establish the factors that led to Osama's protracted stay in the country, and the role of the government and intelligence agencies, if any, behind the lapse.

The report was formed after the interviews of 200 witnesses, including senior civilian and military officials, as well as with Bin Laden's three widows prior to their deportation to Saudi Arabia.

The report clearly found that both the government, as well as the intelligence agencies were grossly negligent and incompetent in dealing with both bin Laden's existence in Pakistan and the subsequent raid by a US Navy SEAL team to kill Osama in May 2011.

The commission has recommended that defense and security policies should be developed and implemented under civilian control.