Osama bin Laden, the man who had on his head a $25 million bounty, lived in Pakistan for about nine years while any functionary of the government could have easily picked him up. How Osama could hide out in a Pakistani military town is explained by a leaked 336-page judicial inquiry report that faults the country’s government for being incompetent to find Osama. The report also explains the reasons as including the corrupt practices of the military officials and low-level governance in the nation. It has criticized both the military and the intelligence community for being unable to track down bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad. This happened in spite of Osama and his family living in a compound that could have been easily seen.
The above-mentioned compound’s walls were sealed with barbed wire and there was no service for waste collection. There wasn’t even a telephone or cable television. None of these strange things caught the attention of Pakistani intelligence, military or security personnel for such a long time. The report also added that it took no time for the CIA to catch this compound as being Osama’s likely hideout. If the country’s intelligence were effective, it could have gathered a whole lot of information about how Osama used to stay in his hideout. When he and his family never left the house, some Pakistanis might also have helped them get the required stuff. Intelligence personnel could track all this.
Further, the report believes that Osama could have got a chance to stay at various places in Pakistan because of some possible direct or indirect support from several authorities. Thus, this option cannot be ruled out. In fact, a housing survey in Abbottabad enumerated this house of Osama but its comments called the house as uninhabited, while nearly 25 people had been staying there constantly since the year 2005. Now would this be called ‘incompetence’ of the officials?– seems somewhat unbelievable! Some informed officials also suggested that there could be connivance at certain broader structural levels in Pakistan’s intelligence community.
The report also tells about the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) working on almost everything in relation to Osama bin Laden, but being unable to take any steps to check whether he is present inside the country or not. That also sounds strange like the fact that the country’s air force only came to know of the U.S. operations in Pakistan by a television report. By the time they got prepared to deal with the situation, Americans had already left after killing their rival. Thus, a high-level blame game is being played on the grounds of Pakistan. The same in the past has led a wanted man to find the country as safe havens.
