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News Death of Bin Laden

Sleepy garrison town that found itself at the centre of the story
Eyewitness
By Omar Waraich in Abbottabad
SOHAIB ATHAR

What his enemies said

TUESDAY 3 MAY 2011 THE INDEPENDENT Bill Clinton I tried and I failed to get Bin Laden. I regret it. But I did try. And I did everything I thought I responsibly could. (2006) George W Bush The evil ones think they can hide. They think they can run. But theyre learning that this is a patient nation. (2001)

THE INDEPENDENT TUESDAY 3 MAY 2011

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Gen. Stanley McChrystal I don't think we can defeat al-Qaida until hes captured or killed. I believe he is an iconic figure at this point. (2009)

A CLOSE ENCOUNTER WITH THE MAN WHO SHOOK THE WORLD

seems very relaxed about his new-found fame. His phone is clogged with messages from the worlds media, demanding that he tell his story. But the IT specialist, who runs Abbottabads Coffity caf with his wife, could scarcely be less troubled. He did notice when his name began trending across the world. But he shrugs when reminded that his Twitter following has soared from a few hundred followers to some 55,000 in less than 24 hours. One of this sleepy garrison towns few social media enthusiasts, Mr Athar was jolted on to his keyboard by the sound of a mighty helicopter buzzing low over his home. In a tweet that has become one of the most read, he wrote: Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1am. For the next half hour, he live-tweeted what he was hearing, without the faintest inkling that his messages were the first public record of Osama bin Ladens final moments. One of his friends got an even clearer view. There were two black gun-

ship helicopters, says Zabiullah Khan, 20, with unflappable certainty. I couldnt see them clearly in the night, but it was obvious that they werent Pakistani. We dont have gunship helicopters. It was the first time in memory Abbottabad has seen such action. Nestled between the wild North-west and the bustling Punjab, this town named after a British colonial officer has been immune to the wave of violence that has rocked much of the country. The buzzing overhead went on for some five to six minutes, recalls Mr Athar, the now-famed tweeter. Then there was a loud explosion. I heard the blast and everything shook in my room, he says, animating with his hands. He was certain it was an explosion. He had heard hauntingly similar sounds back in his native Lahore, and had fled to Abbottabad to escape them. Two of his friends, living 6km apart,
Sohaib Athar
The IT specialist, who lives in Abbottabad, became a Twitter sensation overnight as his following soared from a few hundred to 55,000

Debris is removed from Osama bin Ladens compound

were also rattled. The explosion was caused by one of the helicopters crashing into the compound, apparently because of a mechanical fault. We rushed out of the house immediately, says Muhammad Riaz, echoing the words of several residents across Abbottabad who hastened out on to the streets in panic. When we came outside, I saw the helicopter on fire, there was smoke rising out of it. Mr Riaz says he lives five minutes from Bin Ladens lair. For the most part, the compound in Bilal Towns Thanda Chuha went unnoticed. The area is a comfortable middle-class neighbourhood, populated by

doctors, retired army officers and other professionals. It lies less than a kilometre from the military training academy at Kakul. It has a 12ft wall, bounding about an acre of land, on which lies a multi-storey house. Mr Riaz says a Pashtun man he calls Akbar owns the house. But like others, he says he never glimpsed Bin Laden. On Monday morning, the neighbourhood was cordoned off by a heavy army presence. Only residents and army officers were allowed to pass. Journalists were kept at a distance. One Der Spiegel journalist who forged his way through and took pictures of

the shrouded wreckage was arrested for an hour and had his photographs deleted. The residents are experiencing a mix of emotions. Mr Athar says that, for the most part, people are neither smiling nor saddened. A feeling of bewilderment courses through the town. Some demand proof. We heard rumours before, then he shows up in a video, says Azim Durrani, a university student. For Mr Athar, the irony is sadly striking. I left Lahore because of the bombs, then I come to Abbottabad and find out that Bin Laden lived here. have done at this time was to use the tribal people to capture the fleeing members of al-Qaida. Instead, we got ourselves into a situation where the Army, under pressure from the US, commenced military operations against its own tribal people, which is what led to the revolt of the tribals and by 2004 Pakistan was dragged into the conflict with huge levels of collateral damage, and ultimately leading to the creation of the Pakistani Taliban. After yesterdays attack Pakistan is in great danger. There will be a backlash and there will be added pressure for the Army and the ISI to do more. Will we now be going into North Waziristan in pursuit of other insurgents? The truth, of course, is that Pakistan cannot afford any of this. It cannot afford the inevitable extremist backlash; it cannot afford the targeting of its troops; and it certainly cannot afford the economic consequences. We, the people of Pakistan, no longer have a government that represents us. It is time for Pakistan to get out of this war and to recognise that if we continue along this path we are doomed. Pakistan can no longer afford the human and financial costs and must, along with the rest of the world, realise that ultimately the solutions to these problems are political and the weaker the state becomes, the less likely it will be to tackle the menace of extremism. The US has won its battle against Bin Laden, but the war remains open ended.

ne hot evening in late June 1996, the telephone on my desk in Beirut rang with one of the more extraordinary messages I was to receive as a foreign correspondent. Mr Robert, a friend you met in Sudan wants to see you, said a voice in English but with an Arabic accent. At first I thought he meant another man, whose name I suggested. No, no, Mr Robert, I mean the man you in-

terviewed. Do you understand? Yes, I understood. And where could I meet this man? The place where he is now, came the reply. I knew that Bin Laden was rumoured to have returned to Afghanistan but there was no confirmation of this. So how do I reach him? I asked. Go to Jalalabad you will be contacted. A month later. CLACK-CLACKCLACK. It was as if someone was attacking my head with an ice-pick. CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-CLACK-

Pakistan has lost its dignity and self-esteem as well as sovereignty

he people of Pakistan woke up yesterday morning to be told the news that Osama bin Laden had been killed. But this news did not come from any of their leaders not the Pakistani President, not the Pakistani Prime Minister, nor the Pakistani Army chief. Instead this news came from US President Obama, when he appeared on television and informed the world how the US had been gathering intelligence about a town two hours north of the Pakistani capital, Islamabad. Pakistanis were dumbfounded especially when no statement was forthcoming from their government in the wake of the Obama speech. The big questions that everyone began asking, and for which no answers have been forthcoming, were: who allowed the Americans to come to Pakistan and carry out this attack? And whatever happened to the Pakistani Army and its intelligence? We were all still wondering when we heard, much later, contradictory information being disseminated from the Government of Pakistan and the Western media (with the Indian media outrightly accusing ISI of supporting terrorists). Many hours later the Pakistani Prime

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answer to these questions and this simply allows allegations from the West and from India to go unchallenged that Pakistan has been protecting Bin Laden and other terrorists; that Pakistan knew he was here and kept him safe. The president, the prime minister and the army need to address this immediately and if, as they claim, they had the intelligence that led to the killing of Bin Laden, why it was not done by Pakistani forces? Until this happens, Pakistan will suffer a great loss of credibility and this from a country that has the fifth biggest army in the world and a hefty defence budget. The reason we will not get these answers, of course, is that we have the most corrupt and incompetent government in our history. And just how did it come to this? On 11 September 2001, Osama bin Laden was in Afghanistan and there were no suicide attacks in Pakistan. Fast forward 10 years and there are 34,000 Pakistani dead, the economy has lost $68bn according to President Zardari himself, a massive figure if you

Minister claimed that all the intelligence had come from Pakistan, but the US administration and the Western media said Pakistan was totally out of the loop with no information sharing on this action. All this has led to other serious questions being raised in Pakistan. For instance, if the Pakistan government or the army had this intelligence, why did we not take out Bin Laden ourselves? Why did we
Everyone began asking: whatever happened to the Pakistani army and its intelligence?

Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari did not inform his people of the raid

have to rely on the Americans coming over from their airbases in Afghanistan? Equally disturbing is the tremendous level of distrust the US has for the Pakistanis, which led it to jam the radars during the duration of the operation. There is not just confusion that prevails in Pakistan, but also a national depression at the loss of national dignity and self-esteem as well as sovereignty. There is no

consider that the country has received a total of only $28bn in aid from the US. In the past decade, hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced and we have created insurgent groups like the Pakistani Taliban. Meanwhile, in 2010 across Pakistan there were 500 bomb blasts and today the major financial hub Karachi is aflame with people dying on a daily basis as a result of terrorism. The largest province in area, Balochistan, is prey to a violent insurgency. Back in 2001 and 2002, the US attacks in the Tora Bora region forced some of the al-Qaida leadership across the porous 2,500km border with Pakistan; a border which the local tribes always traversed at will. This was not a situation of war. What Pakistan should

Osama bin Laden fighting in the Afghan-Russian war in the 1980s SIPA
PRESS / REX FEATURES

CLACK-CLACK-CLACK. I sat up. Someone was banging a set of car keys against the window of my room in the Spinghar Hotel. Misssster Robert, a voice whispered urgently. Misssster Robert. He hissed the word Mister. Yes, yes, Im here. Please come downstairs, there is someone to see you. It registered only slowly that the man must have climbed the ancient fire escape to reach the window of my room. I dressed, grabbed a coat I had a feeling we might travel in the night

Death of Bin Laden News

and almost forgot my old Nikon. I walked as calmly as I could past the reception desk and out into the early afternoon heat. The man wore a grubby, grey Afghan robe and a small round cotton hat but he was an Arab and he greeted me formally, holding my right hand in both of his. He smiled. He said his name was Mohamed, he was my guide. To see the Sheikh? I asked. He smiled but said nothing. I followed Mohamed all the way through the dust of Jalalabads main