Adil Najam
Late during the night between May 1 and May 2 in Pakistan there was news floating of a low-flying helicopter having blown up in the city of Abbottabad. There was much speculation, some wild rumors, but no confirmation of what had happened. Then, late night May 1 US East Coast Time (some six hours after the news about from Abbottabad had first started circulating in Pakistan), television screens in the US started flashing a notice that President Barack Obama would soon speak to the nation on a security issue. Rumors and speculation started flashing again.
(Unconfirmed – and, now, reportedly fake – photo of Osama Bin Laden’s dead body being shown on a private TV channel in Pakistan)
Soon it was confirmed that the news was that Osama Bin Laden had been killed: President Obama then confirmed that ke was killed in Pakistan, in Abbottabad, in an operation led by the US but conducted with support of Pakistani authorities (still not clear how much support, and whose). Reportedly, the US now has possession of Osama Bin Laden’s body.
This is a huge development in the War on Terror, even if Osama Bin Laden’s actual role had now become symbolic rather than operational. It is a development that also has huge implications for Pakistan, and for Pakistan-US relations.
More details are trickling by the minute. And partly for that reason it is not yet clear just what happened and which details are confirmed and which are speculation. What is now confirmed is: (a) Osama Bin Laden has been killed, (b) Osama Bin Laden was killed by US forces, (c) Osama Bin Laden was killed in Pakistan, (d) Osama Bin Laden was killed in an operation that was eventually supported by Pakistani authorities, and (e) CNN has no idea about anything that has to do with Pakistan (according to them Abbottabad is an outskirt just outside Islamabad!
As details come in and as a narrative and reactions develop both in Washington and in Islamabad, the one big – the one biggest – question that every Pakistani is thinking about is: What will this mean for Pakistan-US relations? What will this mean for Pakistan and Pakistanis? What will this mean for terrorism within Pakistan as a backlash of this incident?
What do you think?
Those who are babbling that Pakistani military was oblivious of the operation are living in fool’s paradise. American attacking party was in Tarbela, not in Bagram. Some American fools have forgotten in their jubiliation that Bagram is hundreds of miles away from Abbottabad and only a fighter jet can reach it in 10-15 minutes. Even the most advanced choppers would take at least 45 to 50 minutes one-way. I heard someone on American TV saying that they conducted everything from Bagram.
Sridhar,
I Pakistani Army really wanted to give up Osama, they could have done it in heroic style and taken all the credit for it (inluding billions of dollars more from the US).
Why would they give up Osama an still come up looking like fools and back-stabbers to the US? This was a unilateral American intelligence operation, and it puts Pakistan in a very difficult situation.
The problem with the Pakistan army is not that it is inept. It is that it is crooked. Nobody would believe the story that Bin Laden lived in the largest house in the neighborhood, with high walls and barbed wires etc, within walking distance of PMA-Kakul and nobody knew who was inside, or bothered to investigate. The only conclusion one can draw was that he was living under the protection of the Pakistan army and its agencies.
Perhaps the Pakistan Army decided that it was time to give him up to the Americans, or perhaps the Americans truly got to him on their own – this will become clearer only later. Though my own belief is that former was true. It seems unlikely that there would be no response from anybody while the operation was underway for 40 mins at OBL’s compound, including the blowing up of a helicopter. One can even believe that somehow the helicopters evaded the Pakistani radars when they flew in. But how could nobody notice or respond to a full-fledged gun battle underway under a mile away from one of the most important establishments of the Pakistan Army. If it is indeed true that they did not respond for 40 mins, the ineptness charge would also be apt.
Whoaaaaaaa …loook at the mess people are creating..
US spent years and years finding OBL but couldnt find him anywhere,and then at the verge of the hour they finally found him n killed him n threw him in sea.Gawsh what a cosmetic victory and what a dramatic explanation these people are giving to eachother.
“Wolf Blitzer: America doesn’t trust Pakistan therefore the Pakistanis were not informed anything about this operation.
Hussain Haqqani: This is not true, they also didn’t share any information with Australia, Britain or Canada.”
Scary! Who are these people running this country.?