PAKISTAN: Abbottabad residents doubt Osama bin Laden lived in compound

Record ID: 613957

  • Title: PAKISTAN: Abbottabad residents doubt Osama bin Laden lived in compound
  • Date: 5th May 2011
  • Summary: OSAMA BIN LADEN'S PHOTO IN URDU NEWSPAPER
  • Embargoed: 20th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Pakistan, Pakistan
  • Country: Pakistan
  • Topics: War / Fighting
  • Reuters ID: LVAEPF9F8GRHSB1PGKLD7CLCKZ15
  • Story Text: Residents of the Pakistani hill station, Abbottabad, were on Wednesday (May 4) still digesting news that al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been living in their midst before being killed in a U.S. raid, which many people still find hard to believe.
    Life in the quiet town, which is also home to the country's top military academy has come under intense limelight since the raid on the house which killed the world's most wanted man early on Monday (May 2).
    Many still can't believe that bin Laden was killed in their town.
    "This is a conspiracy against Pakistan through which they (United States) are trying to destroy Pakistan. That is their main object. They used to say their main aim was to get Osama, now that has been achieved, they should go away from here," said Abbottabad resident Nir Afzal.
    U.S. special forces dropped onto the roof of the compound where bin Laden had been living since 2005 and after a fierce firefight killed him. Officials have said others who were in the house at the time have been taken away into custody.
    But the fact that bin Laden had been given a sea burial and there has been no visual proof is making it hard for many to accept the news as true.
    "If they had killed him, they should've brought him into the open. They killed some women belonging to Osama's family, they may have killed an important man, saying he was Osama," said local government official, Mohammad Zia.
    Washington has in the past accused Pakistan of lacking the resolve to root out militants and of maintaining ties to fighters targeting U.S. troops in neighbouring Afghanistan.
    In October 2009, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton voiced dismay that bin Laden and other prominent militants had not yet been caught and suggested Pakistani complicity.
    The fact that bin Laden was captured in a town, barely two hours drive from Islamabad, and a few km (miles) from a major military facility, has taken the whole of Pakistan by surprise, and has given rise to a string of "conspiracy" stories revolving around the "enemies of Pakistan."
    Within hours of the operation that killed bin Laden, U.S. lawmakers were asking how he had been able to live in a populated area of Pakistan without anyone in authority knowing about it, possibly for years. Some said it was time to review the billions in aid the United States provides Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, writing on Monday in the Washington Post, said his security forces were left out of Sunday's operation. Zardari said Pakistan was as much a victim of al Qaeda militants as any country and denied any notion that authorities had failed to act.
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