Thaindian News

London, May 4(ANI): The comfortable family life Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden enjoyed under the nose of the Pakistani security services is depicted from the fact that neighbours’ children were invited into the most wanted terrorist’s hideout in Abbottabad to play with pet rabbits, while his children attended a nearby school.

The Saudi-born terrorist, who had evaded capture for a decade, was killed Sunday night in a top secret operation involving a small team of US Special Forces in Abbottabad city, located 50 kilometres northeast of Islamabad and 150 kilometres east of Peshawar.

The BBC interviewed a 12-year-old boy who said he used to visit the compound where bin Laden had died and had met the Al Qaeda leader’s family.

“I used to go to their house. He had two wives, one spoke Arabic, and the other one spoke Urdu. They had three children, a girl and two boys. They gave me two rabbits. They had installed a camera at the outer gate so they could see people before they entered the house,” the Daily Mail quoted Zarar Ahmed, as saying.

It has also emerged that other local children thought something may be amiss, and regularly made a profit from the presence of the terrorist mastermind.

“If a football went into bin Laden’s compound, the children would not be allowed to get it,” said local ice cream vendor Tanvir Ahmed, adding, “They were given money instead; 100-150 rupees per ball.”

Another youngster named Daniel Alvi revealed that he regularly saw a man in a red Suzuki van drive into the compound with a live goat, while the milkman only delivered outside the security gate and never rang the doorbell.

According to locals, the vehicles would travel regularly to the tribal areas where Al Qaeda’s trainers and planners operate.

‘There was a rumour in the neighbourhood that the man who lived there was Baitullah Mehsud’s nephew,’ said Daniel, referring to the late chief of the Pakistani Taliban.

“I went over on two occasions after I hit the ball over there and there was no one there. I think there was a 20-million-dollar reward for bin Laden, but I never imagined it was him,” he added.

Two brothers from the compound visited the shops twice a week to buy provisions like large quantities of vegetables, fruit, rice, biscuits, jam, honey, ice-cream and ice-lollies for the children.

“The brothers were always polite and always asked questions about what was happening locally, and whether there had been strange visitors to the area,” said shopkeeper Raja Shuja.

A newspaper hawker described how he delivered newspapers to the compound every day, and that his bill was promptly paid at the end of each month, always by the same man.

The compound was also close to a local school, and at least two other families lived with Bin Laden, the report said, adding that at any one time, there were up to 20 children within the compound, some attending the local Iqra religious school. (ANI)