Many ask if it’s really possible that Osama bin Laden could have lived in Pakistan for six years without being identified, especially living so close to the Pakistan Military Academy. The simple answer is ‘no’. It defies all common sense that when the whole western world is searching for you with a fine tooth comb, you could be so casual as to stay in the same location for such a long time. Most probably, he was moving between different safe houses in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
How Pakistan’s intelligence officials didn’t know his whereabouts is the more relevant question. I was once told by a senior intelligence officer: “If you are under surveillance by us, we know what film you watched last night on your VCR.”
But on the other hand, who would come looking for Bin Laden in a sensitive area where even using a camera on the street would attract the wrong sort of attention from security officials, especially if one is a foreign national?
However, the consensus of opinion is that the security apparatus in Pakistan knew about Bin Laden’s whereabouts but failed to share this information with their partners in the ‘War on Terror’. It’s also being heard in senior government circles that we gave them the intelligence, but stayed in the background for fear of a backlash by the Pakistani Taliban.
If the recent diplomatic debacle between the US and Pakistan over a certain Raymond Davis is any indication of what might happen in the case of a military operation inside Pakistan, then it seems US got the green light.
In January 2011, a CIA operative known as Raymond Davis shot two innocent Pakistani citizens in a crowded commercial centre of Lahore in broad daylight. The news of this incident flashed on all private news channels within minutes. This opened a Pandora ’s box for the government of Pakistan as public sentiment became very strong against this American misadventure.
Raymond Davis – or whatever his real name was – shot these young men because he believed he was being followed! Within 90 days of the incident, Davis left Pakistan as a free man (in an unmarked aircraft waiting for him at the tarmac) after the provincial government of Punjab paid ‘blood money’ on his behalf.
In hindsight, it could be argued that the incident was an exercise by the US to gauge public reaction to its plans for military intervention in order to ‘get Osama’. US intelligence agents were tracking Bin Laden’s movements for over a year, and were simply waiting for the right time to tell the world: ‘We got him!’
For some, it brings to mind the ultimate humiliation of 16 December 1971, when Dhaka fell and East Pakistan became Bangladesh. The biggest Muslim army in the world had surrendered, and the official laying down of weapons ceremony in Dhaka Stadium was broadcast all around the world (and is still available to see on YouTube). Some believe this US operation is a humiliation of equal proportion, if not worse.
But why is Pakistan so beholden to US interests? One word: India. The Pakistani security apparatus is obsessed with India. All its policies are India-centric, and it is convinced that India wants nothing less than the annihilation of Pakistan, so it needs the US for protection. But one wonders why they can’t see the reality: that India simply wants a stable Pakistan as a neighbour. If there are troubles in Pakistan, chances are they will spill over and disturb India, too.
Common sense dictates that India wants a stable Pakistan as its neighbour.
What of Ayatollah Khomeini’s revolution in Iran, or the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan? Both had a profound affect on Pakistan, both geo-politically and socially.
Meanwhile, the Pakistani nation has been conditioned to accept US hegemony for decades. Recent reports of over 300 Predator drone attacks have further ironed out the creases in the ego of Pakistan, if there were any.
Is this the last territorial violation by the US in Pakistan? No, there will be many more. As per routine there will be rhetorical statement issued by Pakistan government along the lines of ‘This will not be tolerated again.’ Those in the know will laugh and turn the page of their newspaper or change the TV channel.
Rashid Butt is an entrepreneur, human rights campaigner and secretary of the Irish Friends of Pakistan. In 2009 he became the first ever peace commissioner from the new communities in Ireland.
