ISLAMABAD: The Army on Wednesday confirmed media reports that it had made several detentions in connection with the US raid killing Osama bin Laden and other unspecified incidents under ‘a purge’, but denied holding any military officer.
“The arrests are part of ongoing cleansing process and are not related to any single incident,” an ISPR spokesman said while commenting on a New York Times report that five persons, an Army major among them, had been arrested on suspicion that they had helped CIA in the hunt for Bin Laden.
The spokesman did not clarify what he meant by ‘cleansing process’ and whether it was about CIA’s covert network in the country.
Furthermore, it appears from discussions with army officers that the number of those arrested could be more than five.
The issue was raised by CIA chief Leon Panetta when he met Army chief Gen Kayani and ISI head Gen Shuja Pasha over a dinner on Friday, where the three discussed CIA’s footprint in the country and the fractured relationship between the two spy agencies.
Mr Panetta’s visit started off with a media leak that he had landed in Islamabad armed with ‘evidence’ of alleged collusion between the country’s security agencies and militants. This was followed by a report that he had taken up the matter of arrested CIA informants with officials in Islamabad, demonstrating how troubled the relationship had become.
The ISPR said in another statement that “there is no army officer detained” in connection with the Abbottabad incident.
A security source separately claimed that some of those who had been held for interrogation were released after questioning.
Most of the arrests were made over the past three to four weeks.
Western media, ignoring the denial about the major’s custody, came up with ‘details of the arrests’.
The ABC News and Guardian in their reports said the arrested major was a doctor with the army’s medical corps.
Another person being held is thought to be the owner of the house that was used by CIA as a safe house to spy on the Osama compound.
According to BBC, one of those being interrogated was a milkman who served the Bin Laden family. Although no details about the identity of the other persons have come out in the media as yet, it is believed that they formed a part of the cell that tried to “establish pattern of life” inside the compound using hi-tech intelligence paraphernalia. Some of those who provided logistical support for the raid are also being interrogated, according to sources.
After the May 2 raid in Abbottabad, the CIA was asked to cut its presence in the country and many of the operatives have already left the country. CRACKDOWN: Security agencies have reportedly launched a crackdown to unearth local agents of the American spy agency.
Although the Abbottabad raid could have precipitated the action against clandestine CIA network in the country, sources say the military leadership had been mulling over it since the killing of two youth in Lahore in January by Raymond Davis, the CIA operative who was released in March.
An army officer thought the leak about arrest of CIA moles was being done as a follow-up to Mr Panetta’s failed mission to Islamabad when Gen Kayani and Gen Pasha turned down his request to allow CIA operations.
Pakistani authorities have put extra restrictions on visas for CIA agents and intelligence sharing remains on hold despite an agreement with the US for setting up a joint task force for coordination between the two intelligence agencies.
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