Osama Bin Laden, the most-wanted terrorist, mastermind and leader of the Al-Qaeda was killed by the US forces in an operation that was led by the United States in Pakistan. President Obama confirmed the news through a statement made from the White House late Sunday night, wherein he stated that a small team of Americans had carried out the attack in Pakistan and took custody of Osama Bin Laden’s remains.
The hunt for Osama and subsequent global war on terror was launched by the Americans soon after the Sept 11th 2001 attack on the twin towers. The hunt for the mastermind behind the attack continued for a decade, before they managed to track him to a luxury two-story mansion that was located in a compound in the city of Abbottabad in Pakistan. The mansion is surrounded by 12-16 ft walls on all sides and did not have any phone or internet connections. Bin Laden was killed by the Navy Seals and the CIA paramilitary forces in a firefight, in which Bin Laden was reportedly seen attacking the forces in person. Ultimately he was shot dead in the head. Pictures of his dead body are been shown on all the news channels on Television to make people believe the story of his death. He was killed in the early morning hours of May 2nd 2011.
What is ironical about the whole story is that the house in which Osama Bin Laden was found was apparently right next to the military compound of the ISI forces of Pakistan. This puts a huge question mark as to the role of the ISI in hiding Osama from the US and the rest of the world for so many years? The news stories from different sources are giving different interpretations to the whole episode.
The Americans are claiming this to be a victory for them in the war against terror. According to them, “justice” has been done to all the thousands who were killed on the fateful day of the Sept 11 attacks. But, this is by no means the end of terrorism. It still remains to be seen as to how the rest of the world reacts to this death and killing, specially the Muslim nations that have been against US.
For India, it proves that Pakistan seems to be a safe house for terrorists where they are given “sanctuary”. So, India would be now interested to know the view or action that USA will take as far as Pakistan is concerned.
The President of Afghanistan has made a statement saying that the US forces should now leave the soil of Afghanistan as they have found and killed the man that they were after.
"In the wake of this operation, there may be a heightened threat to the U.S. homeland," a U.S. official said. "The U.S. is taking every possible precaution. The State Department has sent advisories to embassies worldwide and has issued a travel ban for Pakistan”.
There has been a red alert sounded in India seeing the situation as it unfolds, and there being threats of the Islamist extremist groups retaliating to this killing of their leader.
The killing of Osama Bin Laden couldn’t have come at a better time for the US President Barack Obama as it could help give him a huge boost for his second term in the polls. Is it a great political move? Is this really a victory in the war against terrorism, or a catalyst to something more sinister to come?
The latest story that has come to light, is that the earlier news reports of the choppers that attacked the house, in which Osama Bin Laden was holed in Pakistan, took off from a base in Afghanistan is proved to be false and now reports are coming in that the choppers took off from a base in Pakistan itself. This raises a lot of questions about the role that Pakistan played in helping US forces. Earlier, it had denied having any knowledge of what the US forces were up to. How is it possible that the US choppers could enter the airspace of Pakistan without the knowledge of Pakistan government? Also, another fact that raises eyebrows is that Abbottabad is just 60Km away from Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan. This house was very close to the military base where troops and cadets were being trained.
