Villagers bemused by hunt for bin Laden’s trail

[Prometheus Bound]

Villagers bemused by hunt for bin Laden’s trail
May 7, 2011. – Reuters

CHAK SHAH MOHAMMAD: Residents of a quiet Pakistani village were bemused on Sunday to find themselves at the centre of the investigation of the secret life of Osama bin Laden, saying there was no way that the al Qaeda leader lived there without them knowing.

<snip>

But residents of the village at the end of a bumpy road flanked by fields of wheat are both puzzled and a little scared to find themselves at the focus of the investigation.

“Everyone in the village knows when a cow has a calf so how could bin Laden and his family hide here?” Mohammad Naseer, a 65-year-old retired soldier, said as he took a break from working his fields.

“I can say for sure he wasn’t here.”

The village is made up of about 120 small, brick buildings, homes and sheds, and has a population of about 400 people, although many have left for work in cities.

“It’s impossible … Everyone knows each other,” said government worker Hafiz Rafiq.

“We’re all from the same clan so if a guest comes to someone’s house, the whole place knows,” said Rafiq, who rushed home on hearing the village was under the spotlight.
http://www.dawn.com/2011/05/08/villagers-bemused-by-hunt-for-bin-ladens-trail.html

[gateley]

1. Then ask them WHO lived in that house, since they know everybody. nt

[Prometheus Bound]

2. That's what I want to know. It's the obvious question.

Why didn't the Reuters reporter ask it?

[jberryhill]

3. Yeah, they never really get to that one... /nt

[Bucky]

4. Denying facts and wanting to ignore bin Laden... Are these Pakistani Republicans?

Shoe fits

[GeorgeGist]

5. A village of 881000

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abbottabad

[Prometheus Bound]

6. His alleged wife allegedly said they lived in this village for 2 1/2 years.

Bin Laden’s youngest wife, who was detained after the raid that killed her husband, told Pakistani investigators that they lived for more than five years in their last home, in Abbottabad, and before that spent two and a half years in this village of roughly 1,500 people, some 25 miles to the south.

But the feudal landlord who owns much of the land in the area, his tenant farmers and the local police were all in disbelief.

“It’s a joke, played on all of us,” the local police inspector said as he patrolled the village, checking on security after a horde of journalists turned up there looking for Bin Laden’s erstwhile home. “It’s absurd,” he said. He asked not to be named in keeping with police force rules.

“It’s impossible,” said Liaquat Khan, the main landowner in the region, whose ancestor Shah Muhammad gave his name to the village and founded the nearby town of Haripur. “It is a very open place, with 50 houses, and they are very poor people who live there,” he said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/world/asia/08village.html