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Pak doctor quizzed over Osama’s whereabouts

London, November 3
A prominent Pakistani surgeon, currently being questioned by American investigators, may hold the clues for the whereabouts of Osama bin Laden, the world’s most wanted man, media reports said here today.

The arrest of 46-year old Dr Amir Aziz, a British-trained orthopaedic surgeon two weeks ago in Lahore, is considered significant by Pakistani military intelligence and FBI agents, who believe he has treated bin Laden and senior Taliban leaders and also helped set up a hospital in Kandahar.

According to a report in the Sunday Telegraph today, FBI officials believe that Aziz treated bin Laden again last December after the terrorist leader’s escape from the American bombardment of Tora Bora into the tribal areas of Pakistan.

Dr Aziz may hold vital clues about bin Laden’s state of health and how far he may have been able to travel, the report said.

“We are pretty sure he had been wounded in the chest from the way his arm was hanging in his last video message,” one investigator said.

“We know he had a kidney complaint. We do not know whether he was fit enough to be on the run, or just lay wounded in a cave somewhere and may be died there. How long could he survive without a dialysis machine? We believe his doctor can tell us, he said.”

The paper quoted colleagues of Aziz saying that he first operated upon bin Laden two years ago. He was in the country during the American bombing and treated senior Taliban leaders injured in fighting in the north before escaping.

Dr Aziz was reportedly taken into custody after Al-Qaida prisoners held in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, revealed his proximity to Al-Qaida and bin Laden. PTI