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To many Pakistanis the unimaginable happened on May 2. After years of mystery regarding his whereabouts, Osama bin Laden was not found in some cave in Afghanistan but in a cozy home within a military cantonment in Abbottabad.
Twenty-four-year-old Anwar Naseem ventured out into his neighbourhood in Lahore to get some reactions on camera. Denial was a common theme.
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Haqani, an accounting student from Islamabad writes, “When I heard the whole story from both my national media and the west’s media, one thing was clear, Osama bin Laden’s death is a false flag operation. Killing the most wanted man and then disposing his body in the blink of an eye with no evidence of his death other than Obama’s speech, was very hard to believe to be true.”
Wajiha Saqib, a senior at LUMS, went through the corridors of her university in search of her own answers with a camera.
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Muhammad Anwar-ul-Haq, also from Lahore, rewinds back to September 11th, the London 7/7 bombings, and the 2008 Mumbai attacks and writes,
“I wonder why no one was worried about the lapse in security when a few men took on these security establishments, but everyone’s suddenly worried when the USA, the sole military super-power in the world, jams our radars along an already minimally monitored border (with respect to air-defense). This in my opinion is not the issue to worry about. The real point to ponder and raise questions about is, what was Osama doing smack in the middle of the Army’s hub and that too in a compound that had already been under surveillance some time back with regard to Al-Qaeda? The important question to ask right now is whether there was a certain degree of complicity on part of certain elements within our security establishment. If there was, then how does the Army plan to counter such people within its ranks? If not, then who will teach our intelligence agencies to focus on something worthwhile (as opposed to tapping phones from the parliament or funding right wing proxy parties to subvert the will of the people).”
Shahid Saeed a blogger originally from Rawalpindi, who is currently finishing is bachelors in electrical engineering from the US writes,
“What goes on in the corridors of military power is a mystery to us. What guides their actions remains a complex web of calculations, strategic they say, often immoral, disgusting, irrational and suicidal in our eyes. They value their assets, they hedge their bets and they play both sides of the game and try to bluff the single most powerful country in the world, to which they have played as a near mercenary force for a fair time.
There are too many questions. Did we protect him? Did we give him refuge? Why would we do that? If not, did we ignore his presence? Are we this incompetent? Did the FIU never ask a question about a mysterious 7 kanal house with a three story building, built by settlers supposedly from Waziristan? Is the holy mother of all agencies so inept and useless that in the sweeps done around areas visited regularly by the Army Chief and the upper hierarchy, they never got suspicious of the house and its residents? How did he come to Abbottabad in the first place? Did he take a Rs. 70, 13-seater Hiace ride from Mansehra and stop off at the Baloch Regimental Center?
If not, then why did they allow a foreign power to come in and hunt him down? Did our forces coordinate and collaborate with the US on the raid? Why are they not speaking? It’s not as if it would not want to take credit for it. The logic of avoiding local terrorists’ wrath is just too pathetic, they already target us. Mullah Omar’s, Hekmatyar’s and Haqqani’s anger be damned, this is their protector we are talking about. It is stupid, nay imaginable, that our forces collaborated extensively and do not want to take credit for it. They would not risk inviting the wrath of the international media that they have called upon themselves today.”
Shahid Saeed, Wajiha Saqib, Anwar Naseem, Muhammad Anwar-ul-Haq and Ibtihaj Haqani contributed to this report produced by Hosh media, a volunteer organisation that aims to bring youth voices onto the mainstream media.
The views expressed by this blogger and in the following reader comments do not necessarily reflect the views and policies of the Dawn Media Group.
it was just a drama played by america n our politicians
My advise to youth of pakistan university students get wise read NFP blogs in Dawn Leading English news paper to get a dose of Realism and well informed coverage of world news and not be like ostriches in sand.
It is almost comical to watch denial of obl's death.
consider following facts
1)His own son confirming his death and seeking justice under international laws for the most unlawfull mass murderer of both muslims and non muslims alike and killer of thousands of innocent pakistanis even praying in their mosques every body including isi knows it is not handiwork of Indian militants which I dont condone either because killing innocent people is cowardly act it shows how gutless you are.
2)Pakistani authorities do admitt custody of his wifes ,children,grandchildren and issueing official statements so believe it.
3)He is who brainwashed innocent suicide bombers but never had courage to do what he preached and ran in to hiding
3)so it is inteir self interest for all pakistani's to get rid of these feudal non secular terrorists and follow the ideal set by founding Father of pakistan Mr M.A. Jinnah
4)Lastly we are(subcontinent) technologically at least a decade behind USA and remember they supplied all your equipment from 1947 they can jam at will as they posses all info so dont agonize over it same with India also Russia,GB,France etc control their equipment except homemade.
Nice to see that at least the youth is waking up to the truth.
Excellent article. The questions which have been asked here are very relevant and need to be answered. But at the same time we should realize that every thing regarding army,security establishment and intelligence can not be revealed to everyone. Its not about the competency of army. Army is competent enough to take care of our nuclear assets and security. Mistakes are committed but they should be forgotten. Pearl Harbour , 9/11, 7/7, Mumbai attacks were all failure of intelligence agencies but it never happened that people started doubting the capabilities of their security forces. Army will definitely be looking in to this failure but we as a nation should support our army because armies are nothing without nations.
There was a young man who held Pakistan Army responsible for incompetence while rejecting the issues of "soverinigty" or "dignity." He made sense. The rest simply rejected as a farce. One of those who rejected it felt the whole scheme was all scripted. The other young man kept his cynicism. Could this be possible? How do they make sense of this world daily? The thing is that they all appeared educated and educated enough to consider all this Amercian operation as hog wash. How could they be oblvious to the operation? There are several security and intelligence offices at work to track bin Laden down. Billions of dollars had been spent. Then the whole operation had been shown through out the world. What is so incrdible in this snap shot is that how less some of the young people know or aware of America.
Kids are talking what about the grown ups and responsible people in position of power. What do they say? Is this going to change our society? Is this going to make us more responsible citizens ready to play their part on world stage? If this is a sign for further decline in society then time to pack and move East/West/North/South. Pick a direction and just don't sit there.
These are not some individual views and response but we as a nation are always pushed to a corner to accept what ever the mighty Americans desire. Till when are we going to bear this attitude which is all together stealing away our self respect. I don't know how we 'll face the questions of our younger generation.
Excellent article. The first video was a bit depressing to watch with all those denials. The fact that his wives and children were found at the compound at least suggests that he was present there. While we may never know the full truth more important questions need to be asked that have already been mentioned here: How was he present there for so long? How could the army be so incompetent? Or was that not the case?
Slightly off topic and a bit personal: As an alumni of LUMS i'm glad that the students there had enough sense to not wonder about why the US acted in such a way and went beyond to ask the more relevant questions of our own state actors.