Neighbours speak well of Osama’s Pakistan ‘family’

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan, Tuesday

Neighbours piecing together clues about the mysterious figures behind the walls of an imposing Pakistani villa told of encounters they had with Osama bin Laden’s household.

Two low-key businessmen living in the high-security house, known to some as Arshad and Tariq Khan, were often in the streets of the garrison town of Abbottabad.

Arshad, 40, apparently bought the land and built the house, while Tariq was believed to be in his 30s. Some thought they were brothers, while others said they were cousins.

Five people died in the dramatic raid on the fortified compound by US forces, including the al Qaeda leader, a woman believed to be his wife, one of his sons, a trusted courier and the courier’s brother.

Neighbours wondered which among them were the mild-mannered men they used to see buying bread or transporting family members.

Jawed Jadi, a cook in a dusty local canteen, said: “We saw Arshad and Tariq taking their wives and children in a red Suzuki Carry (minivan). Sometimes the men would come with children to buy bread,” he said.

It was bin Laden’s reliance on his courier that led to his downfall, with years of dogged intelligence work, chasing the trail of the figure who ferried the Saudi-born kingpin’s missives to the outside world.

Last August US agencies pinpointed the compound where the courier lived with his brother in the affluent suburbs of Abbottabad, about 50 kilometres northwest of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

Mohammed Asif, who bakes traditional naan bread for five rupees apiece in his simple shop, was delighted he may have cooked bin Laden’s last supper.

“Arshad came and bought seven or eight naans. He used to do that twice a day, in the afternoon and in the evening.

Not strangers

“They were two Pashto brothers, one around 37 and the other 42, very kind people in the neighbourhood,” he said, referring to the Pashtun people of Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan. “They did not look like strangers; when we see a stranger, we notice it.”

Asked how he felt to have been bin Laden’s baker, Asif said: “I’m proud, because he was a hero who challenged America. I will tell my grandchildren that it was not our army that launched an offensive against him, it was the Americans.”

Samnoor Bibi, a woman living right in front of the heavily secured compound, said the men, though private, had been kind and generous.

“They used to give us clean water. They supplied electricity to our house for months as we don’t have any connection,” said the 90-year-old, adding that bin Laden’s house mates had also handed out food.

Another neighbour arrived four years ago when the house was already built. “First I thought they were Pakistani Pashto, but now when I think about it, some things were not very Pashto,” he said, asking his real name not be used.

“Their skin was whiter, they trimmed their beard the Arabic way and they were less blunt than Pashto people.”

Asked why excessive security at the villa never aroused suspicions, he said: “We thought Arshad was a rich man with some enmity from family or business.

Among his four wives, bin Laden is known to have married at least one Pashtun woman. Jan said the women of the household never called on other wives, odd in a culture where such social engagement is customary, and the males would not give him a telephone number.