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'Property worth some $1 million'
Photo: JSSNEWS website
Curious reporters stand on nearby rooftops
Photo: Tsur Shezaf
Tourist destination? Aerial shot of property
Photo: Google Earth

What's in store for bin Laden's hideout?

While hundreds of reporters, curious neighbors continue to gather around estate that housed world's most notorious terrorist, Pakistani officials mull mansion's fate. Police want place demolished in fear it might become place of worship, target for acts of vengeance; local authority opts for new tourist attraction to help boost Abbottabad economy

After the dramatic assassination of arch-terrorist Osama bin Laden on Monday, Pakistan is left to decide the fate of the al-Qaeda leader's lavish hideout.

 

According to a report published by Wall Street Journal on Saturday, the Pakistani government is weighing two options – to demolish the Abbottabad estate or transform it into a tourist destination, akin to Hitler's bunker in Berlin, which was opened to the public in 2006.

 

The house that sheltered the notorious terrorist has already become a local attraction, with hundreds of curious neighbors and reporters gathering daily around the gated mansion and on nearby rooftops.

 

After the American raid, local police sealed the area and stationed a security force at the entrance to the property.

 

A local government official proposed to turn the estate into a tourist site, claiming it would boost the city's economy.

 

Police officer stationed outside mansion. (Photo: Tsur Shezaf)

 

"One thing we're hoping is that more tourists will come to visit now," said Mohammed Azfar Nisar, Abbottabad's assistant coordination officer. "They are already there. In fact, even if we don't make it into a museum, people will still come. This could be a blessing in disguise for us," he told the Wall Street Journal.

 

Meanwhile, a local police official said he preferred that the place be demolished as soon as possible, expressing concern that it might become a place of worship, or that reporters and tourists visiting the site might be targeted in an act of vengeance for bin Laden's death.

 

Tourist attraction? Bin Laden's hideout in Abbottabad (Photo: Tsur Shezaf)

 

"I would not want it to be something like a museum or a shrine," said the police official. "The thing should go away—he (bin Laden) has created enough of a problem already," he was quoted as saying.

 

A source in Washington told the newspaper that the house is owned by a Kuwaiti-born Pakistani national that worked as bin Laden's courier and was shot to death during the Monday raid.

 

According to the Wall Street Journal, the property was purchased in 2004-2005 from four different owners by the same person, who identified himself as Mohammed Arshad Waled Niqab Khan and paid approximately $50,000 for the land.

 

American authorities added that the name of the purchaser appears on documents in the local authorities and match the alias used by bin Laden's courier.

 

US officials estimated the property's value at some $1 million, however local real-estate agents claimed the house can be sold for up to $300,000.

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 05.07.11, 13:05
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