The compound where Osama bin Laden was hiding when Navy SEALs found and killed him five years ago looks set to become a children’s playground, according to a local official. Or maybe a graveyard. The site in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the al Qaeda founder and 9/11 mastermind spent his last years has now become the center of a turf war.
On one side sits the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — which is trying to get the playground built — and on the other the local administration. “When OBL was killed, nobody went near the place and nobody claimed its ownership,” Omar Farooq, deputy director of the local Cantonment Administration in Rawalpindi, said on Tuesday. “According to the law, we took charge. And were then instructed to demolish the property,” he told NBC News.
The Cantonment took possession of the 37,996-square-foot site after bin Laden was killed and his family captured on May 2, 2011. The house was razed, and now the plot sits largely unused — although it occasionally becomes a makeshift cricket pitch or a kite-flying field for local children. Nothing happened for years, according to Farooq, who said the former compound “remained a flat piece of land, with no traces of bin Laden’s house.”
You've reached your daily free article limit.
Subscribe and support our veteran writing staff to continue reading.
The compound where Osama bin Laden was hiding when Navy SEALs found and killed him five years ago looks set to become a children’s playground, according to a local official. Or maybe a graveyard. The site in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the al Qaeda founder and 9/11 mastermind spent his last years has now become the center of a turf war.
On one side sits the province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa — which is trying to get the playground built — and on the other the local administration. “When OBL was killed, nobody went near the place and nobody claimed its ownership,” Omar Farooq, deputy director of the local Cantonment Administration in Rawalpindi, said on Tuesday. “According to the law, we took charge. And were then instructed to demolish the property,” he told NBC News.
The Cantonment took possession of the 37,996-square-foot site after bin Laden was killed and his family captured on May 2, 2011. The house was razed, and now the plot sits largely unused — although it occasionally becomes a makeshift cricket pitch or a kite-flying field for local children. Nothing happened for years, according to Farooq, who said the former compound “remained a flat piece of land, with no traces of bin Laden’s house.”
Read more at nbcnews.com
Image courtesy of mirror.co.uk
Can China’s New Fujian Super Carrier Rival the USS Ford?
US Navy Ramps Up Virginia-Class Submarine Production
Former US Army Soldier Sentenced To 14 Years in Prison For Attempting to Aid ISIS
Former Delta Operator Geo Hand Takes Over The Cellblock
North Korea Shuts Down Unification, Demolishes Inter-Korean Roads
Join SOFREP for insider access and analysis.
TRY 14 DAYS FREEAlready a subscriber? Log In
COMMENTS
You must become a subscriber or login to view or post comments on this article.