{"id":173587,"date":"2011-05-05T19:22:20","date_gmt":"2011-05-05T19:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/new.moldova.org\/2011\/05\/05\/fugitives-house-in-a-very-peaceful-area-220332-eng\/"},"modified":"2011-05-05T19:22:20","modified_gmt":"2011-05-05T19:22:20","slug":"fugitives-house-in-a-very-peaceful-area-220332-eng","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moldova.org\/en\/fugitives-house-in-a-very-peaceful-area-220332-eng\/","title":{"rendered":"Fugitive’s House in a ‘Very Peaceful Area’"},"content":{"rendered":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan— Osama bin Laden went to great lengths to shield his home from intruding eyes, offering a sign of how the world’s most-wanted fugitive managed to hide in a city of 500,000 people.<\/p>\n

Abbottabad, a military-dominated town a two-hour drive from Pakistan’s capital, is a well-to-do place with Standard Chartered ATMs and Shell gas stations.<\/p>\n

It has one of Pakistan’s best golf courses, frequented by former generals, and the British-era St. Luke’s Church.
\nAlong the main road through the city, which leads to the suburb where bin Laden lived, signs welcome visitors to the "Home of PIFFERS," a nickname for the local infantry regiment.<\/p>\n

Other advertisements tout upscale schools, with pictures of boys in British-era blazers.
\nMountains ring the city: Bin Laden would have been able to look out of his home toward lightly forested hills strewn with rocky outcrops.<\/p>\n

The house sits in an upscale suburb close to the elite Pakistan Military Academy. High walls topped with barbed wire and a large green gate block a clear view of the compound from most vantage points.
\nThe man who owned the house was Arshad Khan, an ethnic Pashtun from Charsadda in Pakistan’s northwest, according to local property surveyors who were measuring the compound Tuesday. Mr. Khan bought the property in 2004 from a man called Abdul Rahman.<\/p>\n

Mr. Khan was likely one of the two Pashtun men who were living in the house and known to locals as money-changers.<\/p>\n

It was unclear whether these men, believed to be brothers or cousins, were the couriers for bin Laden who led U.S. intelligence to the house. It was also unknown whether they were the two men killed along with bin Laden and his son in the raid.<\/p>\n

Many houses in Abbottabad, built by ex-servicemen and business people, also have high walls, but the large scale and fortress-like nature of the compound stand out in the area.
\nMany homes—including the bin Laden compound—stand alone, surrounded by plots of potato, wheat and other crops.<\/p>\n

Whether the crops around the compound belonged to the residence was unclear. The area around the house was the subject of a dispute between civilian and military administrators, who both claimed jurisdiction over land sales there, two local officials said.<\/p>\n

As authorities permitted reporters to reach the compound walls for the first time Tuesday since bin Laden’s death, what appeared to be remnants of the attack by U.S. Navy Seals lay scattered in the neighboring property: mechanical parts stamped with serial numbers and broken glass.
\nPakistani officials had already removed the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed in the raid. It was destroyed there by U.S. forces.<\/p>\n

The top two floors of bin Laden’s three-story house are visible from outside the perimeter walls. The house, built in 2005, appears rundown. Grass grows off a ledge below the roof.
\nThe outside walls are scarred with damp and mold. A hand-painted advertisement for Jamia Girls College, in Urdu and English, decorates one of the walls.<\/p>\n

An awning on an outdoor window hangs down at an angle, perhaps after being damaged during the attack. Otherwise, the house stands intact, with few signs of the major firefight only two days earlier.<\/p>\n

There are no visible air-conditioning units that could have kept residents cool through the Pakistan summer.
\nAt the back of the house, a small, triangular garden with a towering fir tree could have given bin Laden a chance to get air without being seen by outsiders.<\/p>\n

A view inside the perimeter wall from the roof of a nearby farm shed shows the two separate compounds, separated by a driveway and a high dividing wall, visible in satellite photographs of the house.<\/p>\n

The house and yard are on one side; the other appears to have been a place for keeping animals, with a large mud patch for grazing and a lean-to shed against one wall. Locals said the building’s residents kept two cows, which would sometimes be let out to graze.<\/p>\n

Neighbors in the area say they knew little of the inhabitants.
\nHaji Bashir Khan, a restaurant owner who lives a few houses away and is not related to Arshad Khan, the house’s owner, says the two men who were seen coming in and out of the house were believed to be money lenders from near Peshawar, the major city in northwestern Pakistan.<\/p>\n

"They didn’t go to other homes, nor allow people to go to their homes," he said.
\nMr. Khan said he was awakened Sunday night into Monday by the sound of helicopters flying low overhead. He climbed on his roof and saw two helicopters, one of which crashed.<\/p>\n

There was firing and a large explosion. Mr. Khan said he assumed India’s army had launched an attack.<\/p>\n

Abbottabad is far from fighting between Taliban and the army in the northwest, making this week’s raid a rare disturbance. "We have no concept of terrorism here," Mr. Khan said. "It’s a very peaceful area."<\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>Osama bin Laden went to great lengths to shield his home from intruding eyes, offering a sign of how the worlds most-wanted fugitive managed to hide in a city of 500,000 people.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":173586,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-173587","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"content_social_share":"Reading Time: <\/span> 3<\/span> minutes<\/span><\/span>

ABBOTTABAD, Pakistan— Osama bin Laden went to great lengths to shield his home from intruding eyes, offering a sign of how the world’s most-wanted fugitive managed to hide in a city of 500,000 people.<\/p>\n

Abbottabad, a military-dominated town a two-hour drive from Pakistan’s capital, is a well-to-do place with Standard Chartered ATMs and Shell gas stations.<\/p>\n

It has one of Pakistan’s best golf courses, frequented by former generals, and the British-era St. Luke’s Church.
\nAlong the main road through the city, which leads to the suburb where bin Laden lived, signs welcome visitors to the "Home of PIFFERS," a nickname for the local infantry regiment.<\/p>\n

Other advertisements tout upscale schools, with pictures of boys in British-era blazers.
\nMountains ring the city: Bin Laden would have been able to look out of his home toward lightly forested hills strewn with rocky outcrops.<\/p>\n

The house sits in an upscale suburb close to the elite Pakistan Military Academy. High walls topped with barbed wire and a large green gate block a clear view of the compound from most vantage points.
\nThe man who owned the house was Arshad Khan, an ethnic Pashtun from Charsadda in Pakistan’s northwest, according to local property surveyors who were measuring the compound Tuesday. Mr. Khan bought the property in 2004 from a man called Abdul Rahman.<\/p>\n

Mr. Khan was likely one of the two Pashtun men who were living in the house and known to locals as money-changers.<\/p>\n

It was unclear whether these men, believed to be brothers or cousins, were the couriers for bin Laden who led U.S. intelligence to the house. It was also unknown whether they were the two men killed along with bin Laden and his son in the raid.<\/p>\n

Many houses in Abbottabad, built by ex-servicemen and business people, also have high walls, but the large scale and fortress-like nature of the compound stand out in the area.
\nMany homes—including the bin Laden compound—stand alone, surrounded by plots of potato, wheat and other crops.<\/p>\n

Whether the crops around the compound belonged to the residence was unclear. The area around the house was the subject of a dispute between civilian and military administrators, who both claimed jurisdiction over land sales there, two local officials said.<\/p>\n

As authorities permitted reporters to reach the compound walls for the first time Tuesday since bin Laden’s death, what appeared to be remnants of the attack by U.S. Navy Seals lay scattered in the neighboring property: mechanical parts stamped with serial numbers and broken glass.
\nPakistani officials had already removed the wreckage of the helicopter that crashed in the raid. It was destroyed there by U.S. forces.<\/p>\n

The top two floors of bin Laden’s three-story house are visible from outside the perimeter walls. The house, built in 2005, appears rundown. Grass grows off a ledge below the roof.
\nThe outside walls are scarred with damp and mold. A hand-painted advertisement for Jamia Girls College, in Urdu and English, decorates one of the walls.<\/p>\n

An awning on an outdoor window hangs down at an angle, perhaps after being damaged during the attack. Otherwise, the house stands intact, with few signs of the major firefight only two days earlier.<\/p>\n

There are no visible air-conditioning units that could have kept residents cool through the Pakistan summer.
\nAt the back of the house, a small, triangular garden with a towering fir tree could have given bin Laden a chance to get air without being seen by outsiders.<\/p>\n

A view inside the perimeter wall from the roof of a nearby farm shed shows the two separate compounds, separated by a driveway and a high dividing wall, visible in satellite photographs of the house.<\/p>\n

The house and yard are on one side; the other appears to have been a place for keeping animals, with a large mud patch for grazing and a lean-to shed against one wall. Locals said the building’s residents kept two cows, which would sometimes be let out to graze.<\/p>\n

Neighbors in the area say they knew little of the inhabitants.
\nHaji Bashir Khan, a restaurant owner who lives a few houses away and is not related to Arshad Khan, the house’s owner, says the two men who were seen coming in and out of the house were believed to be money lenders from near Peshawar, the major city in northwestern Pakistan.<\/p>\n

"They didn’t go to other homes, nor allow people to go to their homes," he said.
\nMr. Khan said he was awakened Sunday night into Monday by the sound of helicopters flying low overhead. He climbed on his roof and saw two helicopters, one of which crashed.<\/p>\n

There was firing and a large explosion. Mr. Khan said he assumed India’s army had launched an attack.<\/p>\n

Abbottabad is far from fighting between Taliban and the army in the northwest, making this week’s raid a rare disturbance. "We have no concept of terrorism here," Mr. Khan said. "It’s a very peaceful area."<\/p>\n\n\n

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