Zardari says Osama raid only US operation, hunt for house owner
Washington/Islamabad, May 3 (IANS) A day after the killing of Osama bin Laden by Americans, speculation raged Tuesday on Pakistan's complicity in hiding the Al Qaeda leader as President Asif Ali Zardari said candidly that the attack was not a joint operation. Investigators meanwhile hunted for the owner of the Abbottabad mansion where bin Laden was hiding.
Security agencies were frantically searched for the person who owned the $1 million house where Osama was hunted down, ending a two-decade hunt for the man who masterminded the 1993 New York bombing and the more audacious 9/11 strike on the twin towers in the city.
The mansion in Abbottabad, about 120 km from Islamabad, is called Waziristan haveli by locals as it is owned by a transporter from Waziristan. It is a stone's throw from the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul.
"Nobody had a clue to the presence of Osama and his family there," Dawn quoted an Abbottabad resident as saying.
An official said the Waziristani transporters' connection could give them clues as to how Osama and his family travelled to the place. The house was built some five years ago.
According to an official, it may have been built close to a high security zone to protect it from foreign intelligence operatives and electronic surveillance and predator drones.
An analyst added: "...that he would live a quiet family life with his wives and children, away from the rugged hot-zones of the tribal regions, in a picturesque and scenic place like Abbottabad was beyond anybody's imaginations."
An official said a woman who was nabbed from the mansion and "who spoke a smattering of English said they had moved to the compound a few months ago".
"But we would want to know how did they come to this place," he said.
Osama's two wives were among those who were left behind after the swift 40 minute operation by US Navy SEALs.
A third woman, who was wounded, was taken to a military hospital. Nine children - boys and girls aged between 2 and 12 years - were also detained.
As rumours swirled, President Zardari attempted to set the record straight and said the US raid in Abbottabad city was not a joint operation.
In an opinion column titled "Pakistan did its part", published in the Washington Post, Zardari said: "Pakistan, perhaps the world's greatest victim of terrorism, joins the other targets of Al-Qaeda... in our satisfaction that the source of the greatest evil of the new millennium has been silenced, and his victims given justice."
"He (Osama) was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be, but now he is gone," said Zardari.
The president added: "Although the events of Sunday were not a joint operation, a decade of cooperation and partnership between the United States and Pakistan led up to the elimination of Osama bin Laden as a continuing threat to the civilized world."
Taking a bit of credit for the killing, Zardari wrote: "And we in Pakistan take some satisfaction that our early assistance in identifying an Al Qaeda courier ultimately led to this day."
He went on to say that just hours after Osama's death, "the Taliban reacted by blaming the government of Pakistan and calling for retribution against its leaders, and specifically against me as the president".
Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf too admitted that the US did not involve Islamabad in the operation to take out the 9/11 mastermind because of lack of trust.
"I think there is a lack of trust -- the trust and confidence, definitely. That is why, maybe, they (the US) didn't involve them (Pakistan)," he told CNN.
"Yes, it is astonishing. It's - it's very surprising. But I have no doubt in my mind whatsoever, knowing our intelligence and army, that Pakistan Army, Pakistan intelligence are operating with all their heart and soul against Al Qaeda and Taliban."
Meanwhile, the US embassy in Islamabad and American consulates in Lahore, Karachi and Peshawar were closed for public dealings in a bid to avoid any trouble in the wake of bin Laden's killing.