Thaindian News

Islamabad, July 23 (IANS) The government’s takeover of the plot where Al Qaeda chief was killed has led a leading Pakistani daily to point out that it was still not known “why and how bin Laden ended up living in Abbottabad”.

An editorial in the Dawn Monday said that the house where Osama bin Laden was hiding has been destroyed, but that is apparently not enough.

The empty plot is in the process of formally being declared government property.

“And just as the demolition of Osama’s house in February - which was carried out mainly at night and under tight military watch - smacked of defensiveness and secrecy on the part of the state, so does this latest attempt to control a reminder of one of the most embarrassing incidents in the country’s history,” said the daily.

“…In trying so hard to control the location, the authorities have only deepened the general air of suspicion about Pakistan’s role in the whole affair,” it added.

Osama bin Laden was gunned down in May last year by US commandos.

The editorial said that reports of the government takeover of the plot are a reminder that “the authorities remain much less efficient when it comes to investigating, or at least sharing, why and how bin Laden ended up living in Abbottabad”.

It said that though several deadlines have come and gone, no investigation report has emerged over a year after a commission was formed to carry out a probe into “why bin Laden was here and why America was able to get him in the way that it did”.

“As with the compound itself, the fear now is that the answers to these questions will remain shrouded in secrecy. Like other security failures and policy mistakes in our history, one gets the distinct feeling that this one is also being swept under the rug,” it observed.