My shock at Osama hideout

SHOCK... Basit Shah says once again Pakistan is under the spotlight for the wrong reasons

A COMMUNITY leader has described his shock at discovering that the world’s most wanted man was hiding out near the Pakistan town where he grew up.

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden — the world’s most deadly terrorist — was shot dead by the US government on May 2 after a 10-year manhunt to avenge the 9/11 attacks.

Former councillor Basit Shah, chairman of governors at Hathershaw College of School of Technology and Sport, originally comes from Kundi in Haripur village — only 22 miles from Abbottabad, where intelligence officials claim bin Laden was hiding for over a year.

Mr Shah, who came to Oldham when he was 12, has raised more than £70,000 for the Pakistan earthquake and flood appeals.

He said: “I was shocked when I watched the news and also received a phone call from my cousin’s brother.

He said the people in the surrounding areas were shocked and surprised by the existence of Osama and even more so that he was in Abbottabad.

“I have been on holiday there several times — it’s a beautiful place.

“But they have been told he has died about four times so they are not convinced he was hiding there.

“Communities here and overseas are deeply concerned about the whole situation and what this could mean for the future of Pakistan.

“Some 35,000 Pakistanis have died since 2004, infrastructures have been destroyed, hundreds of schools have been destroyed and extremism has become the norm.

“This has been a public embarrassment for the Pakistan government.”

Mr Shah asks, if intelligence knew of bin Laden’s whereabouts, why they set out to kill innocent people in Waziristan.

He added: “If the US wants to save Pakistan they must withdraw from Pakistan, and let Pakistan deal with its own problems;.

“Their presence will enhance further terrorist attacks and bring deaths to more innocent people.

“Pakistan would now be well advised to disengage itself from the US and establish and strengthen its links with the government, ISI and the Army.

There should be internal planning to prevent any backlash from terrorists and how to strengthen the links with the countries that border Pakistan.”