Pak security agencies were 'very close' to capturing Osama before US raid: Rehman Malik

Islamabad, Mar 8 (ANI): Pakistan Interior Minister Rehman Malik has claimed that his country's security agencies were 'very close' to capturing the slain al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden.

He told a judicial commission that security agencies were about to find bin Laden's compound when US special forces captured and killed the al Qaeda chief on May 2, 2011 in Abbottabad.

"We were about to catch Osama when US Navy SEALs raided his compound (in Abbottabad)," insiders told The Express Tribune while quoting Malik.

On Wednesday, Malik recorded his statement and submitted a detailed report regarding the incident to the commission, officials said.

The Abbottabad commission had summoned Malik last month, seeking an explanation to the circumstances leading to bin Laden's killing in the light of security agencies' briefing to the interior ministry soon after the raid, which triggered a heated debate on the failure of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

The commission has already recorded statements of the heads of military and civil intelligence agencies, the chief of the Pakistan Air Force, the director-general military operations, Pakistan's ambassador to Washington, present and former foreign minister and secretaries, and the wives and children of Bin Laden who were taken into protective custody from the three-storey compound in Abbottabad. (ANI)