Timeline: Osama bin Laden, his life and death - Hindustan Times

Timeline: Osama bin Laden, his life and death - Hindustan Times

Here is a list of milestones in the life of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, who was killed in Pakistan this week: 1957 - Osama bin Mohammad bin Awad bin Laden was born in Riyadh, one of more than 50 children of a millionaire businessman. There are conflicting accounts of his precise date of birth.

1976-79 - Bin Laden studies management and economics at university in Jeddah.

December 26, 1979 - Soviet Union invades Afghanistan.

1984 - Bin Laden becomes involved with organisation based in Peshawar, Pakistan, supporting Arab volunteers arriving to fight Soviet forces in Afghanistan.

1986 - Bin Laden moves to Peshawar, begins importing arms and forms his own small brigade of volunteer fighters.

1988 - Soviet forces leave Afghanistan. Al Qaeda (The Base) is established as a magnet for radical Muslims seeking a more fundamentalist brand of government in their home countries and joined in common hatred of the United States, Israel and US-allied Muslim governments.

1991 - Bin Laden returns to Saudi Arabia, then leaves for for exile in Sudan, having opposed the kingdom's alliance with the United States against Iraq.

June 1993 - Bin Laden family moves to expel Osama as shareholder in its businesses, which focus on construction.

April 9, 1994 - Saudi Arabia, angered by bin Laden's propaganda against its rulers, revokes his citizenship.

May 1996 - Bin Laden is forced to leave Sudan after US pressure on its government, and goes to Afghanistan.

August 1996 - Bin Laden issues a fatwa, or religious decree, that US military personnel should be killed.

September 1996 - Taliban movement establishes "Islamic emirate" in Afghanistan.

October 1996 - US names bin Laden as prime suspect in two bombings in Saudi Arabia that killed 24 US servicemen and two Indians.

August 7, 1998 - Truck bombs explode at US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing 224, including 12 Americans.

August 20, 1998 - President Bill Clinton names bin Laden as America's top enemy and accuses him of responsibility for the Nairobi and Dar es Salaam bombings. US launches missile strikes against what Clinton calls terrorist bases in Afghanistan and Sudan. One destroys a pharmaceutical plant in Khartoum, whose owner denies any affiliation with bin Laden.

October 12, 2000 - Al Qaeda strikes at destroyer USS Cole, in Yemeni port of Aden. Seventeen sailors are killed.

September 11, 2001 - Three hijacked planes crash into major US landmarks, destroying New York's World Trade Center and plunging into the Pentagon. A fourth hijacked plane crashes in Pennsylvania. Nearly 3,000 people are killed. In a video released later, bin Laden says the collapse of the towers exceeded al Qaeda's expectations.

September 17, 2001 - US President George W Bush says bin Laden is "Wanted: Dead or Alive".

October 7, 2001 - United States attacks Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, host to bin Laden and al Qaeda.

November 2001 - Afghanistan's Taliban rulers are ousted.

December 6, 2001 - Anti-Taliban forces capture bin Laden's main base in Tora Bora mountains of eastern Afghanistan. Bin Laden evades capture.

September 10, 2002 - Al Jazeera broadcasts what it says is the voice of bin Laden praising the 9/11 hijackers as men who "changed the course of history".

November 2002 - Al Qaeda claims responsibility for suicide car bombs in Kenya that blew up the Mombasa Paradise resort hotel, popular with Israelis, killing 15 people and wounding 80.

October 2004 - Bin Laden bursts into US election campaign in his first videotaped message in over a year to deride Bush.

September 2006 - Bush vows: "America will find you."

September 2007 - Bin Laden issues first new video for nearly three years, telling US it is vulnerable despite its power.

May 18, 2008 - Bin Laden urges Muslims to break the Israeli-led blockade of the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip, and fight Arab governments that deal with Israel.

January 24, 2010 - Bin Laden claims responsibility for the failed December 25 bombing of a US-bound plane in an audio tape and vows to continue attacks on the United States.

March 25, 2010 - Bin Laden says al Qaeda will kill any Americans it takes prisoner if accused September 11 planner Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, held by United States, is executed, according to an audiotape aired on al Jazeera.

January 21, 2011 - Bin Laden says in an audio recording that the release of French hostages held in Niger by al Qaeda depends on France's soldiers leaving Muslim lands.

May 2, 2011 - Bin Laden is killed in Abbottabad, 60 km (35 miles) north of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

May 6, 2011 - Al Qaeda confirms bin Laden's death in an Internet message and vows not to abandon armed struggle. It vows revenge on the United States and allies, and says bin Laden's death will be a curse "that chases the Americans and their agents", according to the SITE monitoring service.

US rubs it in with drone attack, kills 17 in Pak - Hindustan Times

US rubs it in with drone attack, kills 17 in Pak - Hindustan Times

US drone aircraft fired missiles into a house in Pakistan's North Waziristan region on Friday, killing at least 17 suspected militants as Islamists protested against the killing of Osama bin Laden. Four drones took part in the first such attack since US special forces killed the al Qaeda leader on

Monday not far from Islamabad, further straining ties between the strategic allies whose cooperation is needed to stabilise neighbouring Afghanistan.

Facing relentless suicide bombings by Islamic militants and struggling with a stagnant economy, Pakistan's leaders now face criticism from all sides on bin Laden.

Both Islamists and ordinary Pakistanis are questioning how their leaders can just stand by while the United States sends commandos deep inside the country into a garrison city to eliminate the al Qaeda chief.

At the same time, suspicions that some Pakistani security forces might have known he was hiding in the country threaten to strain already uneasy ties with Washington.

"The country's political and military leadership should immediately resign as they have failed to ensure the country's integrity," said Fareed Ahmed Paracha, a senior leader of the biggest Islamist political party, Jamaat-e-Islami, at a rally in the eastern city of Lahore.

"This is an attack on Pakistan's sovereignty," said Paracha of the raid by US Navy SEALS that ended one of the most extensive manhunts in history.

Pre-dominantly Muslim Pakistan has yet to see any major backlash since bin Laden's killing, but is death has angered Islamists.

About 1,500 Islamists demonstrated near the city of Quetta, capital of Baluchistan province in the southwest, saying more figures like bin Laden would arise to wage holy war against the United States.

"Jihad (holy war) against America will not stop with the death of Osama," Fazal Mohammad Baraich, a cleric, said amid shouts of "Down with America".

"Osama bin Laden is a shaheed (martyr). The blood of Osama will give birth to thousands of other Osamas."

In Abbottabad, where the US operation took place, dozens of Islamists marched through streets calling on the United States to stay out of Pakistan and Afghanistan.

"America is the world's biggest terrorist," read one placard.

Small protests were also held in the cities of Multan, Hyderabad and Abbottabad.

Anti-American sentiment runs high here, despite billions of dollars in US aid for nuclear-armed, Pakistan.

Pakistan's religious parties have not traditionally done well at the ballot box, but they wield considerable influence on the streets of a country where Islam is becoming more radicalised.

The US war on militancy is unpopular in Pakistan because of the perception of high civilian deaths from drone attacks against suspected militants along the Afghan border and the feeling they are a violation of the country's sovereignty.

The Pakistani government said bin Laden's death was a milestone in the fight against militancy although it objected to the raid as a violation of sovereignty.

Pakistan has denied any knowledge of his whereabouts and the army threatened on Thursday to cut intelligence and military cooperation with the United States if it mounted more attacks.

Some Pakistanis are too overwhelmed by the daily grind in a politically and economically unstable nation that offers poor government services and education, to react to the fact that the world's most wanted man was living here for years undetected.

"This is just another instance of us becoming insensitive to all the chaos around us as a nation, and Osama's death is just another day, another incident for us," said Jibran Jawaid, a film producer in Pakistan's biggest city, Karachi.

"Frankly, when people are so worried about high food prices, no power, security and everything, they cannot be blamed for being insensitive. A roti (bread) costs so much, bombs go off every now and then, people are robbed daily, so should they worry about that or the US raid?"

Nowhere to hide

Nowhere to hide

The killing of Osama bin Laden has become a fount of confusing stories, as Pakistan twists in the wind, trying to explain how the most wanted terrorist in the world was ensconced in the middle of a garrison town. As the news broke, the Pakistan army was caught in an awful bind — it could say it had no idea about bin Laden, and appear laughably incompetent, or it could accept that a part of it, at least, was complicit with bin Laden’s terror apparatus. Pakistan’s reactions in the first 48 hours or so were a welter of contradictions — first it tried to pretend it was part of the operation all along, and clung to the few ambiguous words in Obama’s announcement to claim part-ownership of the affair. Later, after the CIA and other US officials said that Pakistan hadn’t been informed at all, because it couldn’t be trusted not to alert the targets, that tack was clearly unsustainable. Then, in an 180-degree turn, Pakistan’s foreign secretary said Pakistan had no role at all, and put on an air of wounded pride, describing the sneak assault as an incursion on their sovereignty.

Though it still maintains that injured innocence, the bin Laden killing has only stripped away all pretences. New Delhi, as much as Washington and others, knew that the Pakistan army was playing a dangerous, deceptive game, being sustained by US aid while feeding terror networks. This event only provided embarrassing, smoking-gun proof of that duplicity. However, now India must join those who seek a full accounting from Pakistan. While India should avoid gloating, it deserves a comprehensive explanation of how the Pakistan army and intelligence played both sides, and of the terrorist outfits that thrive under their benevolent umbrella.

However, this event obviously complicates the resumed India-Pakistan peace process. The first round is proceeding reasonably smoothly, but confirmation of the Pakistan army’s double-dealing raises questions about the sustainability of the talks. Even as India continues to engage Pakistan’s civilian leadership, it must draw attention to the army and ISI nurturing terrorism, to alert the world and the Pakistani people to the dangers of this unaccountable superstate. Pakistan’s establishment has been pushed to the wall. US and international pressure will inevitably mount, and if it is pressured into acting against the Taliban and Haqqani network, then it will face a jihadist backlash. As these tensions rise, Pakistan’s internal political arrangements could come under stress. India must be watchful of Pakistan’s internal repercussions, even as it steps up the pressure for a full accounting.

Zawahiri betrayed Osama: Saudi paper

Zawahiri betrayed Osama: Saudi paper

Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden was betrayed by his deputy Ayman al-Zawahiri who led US forces to his hideout as the two were involved in an intense power struggle, a Saudi newspaper has reported.

The two top al-Qaeda men had differences and the courier who led US forces to bin Laden was working and had more loyalties for Zawahiri, al Watan newspaper reported quoting Arab sources.

"The Egyptian faction of al-Qaeda led by Zawahiri was defacto running the militant group, after bin Laden was taken ill in 2004 and they were trying to take full control," the paper said.

The courier was a Pakistani national and not a Kuwaiti as the US suspected and the man knew he was being followed but disguised the fact.

The paper claimed it was Zawahiri's faction which had persuaded Osama to leave tribal areas close to Afghanistan-Pakistan border to take shelter instead in Abbottabad, where he was finally killed by US SEALs on Monday.

The plan to dispose off bin Laden had by a prominent al-Qaeda commander Saif al- Adel of Egyptian descent, who returned to Pakistan from Iran, last autumn.

Al-Adel had reportedly escaped to Iran escorting Osama's other son and family members after 9/11.

Al-Adel is a member of the majlis-al-shura of al-Qaeda and a member of its military committee, and he provided military and intelligence training to members of al-Qaeda and Egyptian Islamic Jihad in Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Sudan, and to anti-UN Somali tribes.

UAE issues 'stapled visa' to PoK residents including its PM

UAE issues 'stapled visa' to PoK residents including its PM

The United Arab Emirates has begun issuing "stapled visas" to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir residents, including its "Prime Minister" Sardar Attique Ahmed, a media report said today.

The practice of issuing "stapled visas" is new and previously visas were stamped as usual on the passports, the Pakistan Observer newspaper reported today.

PoK "Prime Minister" Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, who holds a Pakistani diplomatic passport, was issued a stapled visit visa by the UAE Embassy in Islamabad on Tuesday, the report said.

China had sparked a diplomatic row with India last year by issuing stapled visas to residents of Jammu and Kashmir.

Indian Afghan missions on high alert after Osama's death

Indian Afghan missions on high alert after Osama's death

India has issued a high security alert for its missions and other interests in Afghanistan in the wake of the killing of Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

Though the Indian embassy in Kabul and its consulates in Kandahar, Jalalabad, Mazar-e-Sharif and Herat are always facing serious threat, Osama's killing in Abbottabad on Monday has increased the level of danger Indian establishments and its people face, sources said.

Security has been tightened in view of a heightened threat from Taliban and other terror groups which may carry out a wave of attacks following the killing of Osama.

Sources said intelligence inputs suggested that apart from its missions, other reconstruction projects being carried out by Indians could be targeted by Haqqani faction of Taliban or terrorist groups based in Pakistan like Lashkhar-e-Taiba, which has been expanding its base in Afghanistan.

The terrorists could launch a wave of attacks, involving explosion of car-bombs followed by assault by gunmen, the sources said, quoting intelligence inputs.

There are nearly 4,000 Indians deployed in various projects such as medical facilities, railway and road construction.

Nearly 200 Indo Tibetan Border Police personnel, who are guarding the embassy, that has already been targeted twice since 2008, and Indian nationals working on developmental projects, have been alerted of the possibility of the attacks.

The government has ordered maximum security for all of them, the sources said. New Delhi has also requested Kabul to deploy adequate Afghan security personnel in the Indian missions as well as other assets.

The staff of the embassy and Indians working on developmental projects have been advised to exercise caution, restrict their movements to the minimum and maintain secrecy.

On February 26, 2010, two hotels in Kabul where Indians engaged in developmental and reconstruction works in that country were targeted by terrorists.

The terror attack was on the pattern of the 26/11 Mumbai carnage, with six to eight terrorists targeting the hotels and hunting for victims during the strike in which two major-rank officers of the army were among the six Indians killed and 10 others, including five army officers, injured.

The attack was the fourth on Indian interests in Afghanistan since July 2008 when a car laden with about 100 kg of explosives was blown up at the gate of Indian Embassy, killing 60 people, including four Indians -- a Brigadier-rank officer, a senior IFS officer and two ITBP personnel.

In October 2009, terrorists struck again at the embassy, carrying out a car bomb explosion near its outer wall and killing 17 people.

Subsequently, in December 2009, a hotel housing staff of an Indian IT company was targeted. Eight people were killed and two IT executives, an Indian cook and a cleaner were among those injured.

Pakistan warns India against any Osama-type operation

Pakistan warns India against any Osama-type operation

Pakistan on Thursday warned India against any Abbottabad-like operation, saying any such "misadventure" would lead to a "terrible catastrophe."

The fear in Pakistan establishment is genuine as Mumbai serial blast accused Dawood Ibrahim and the Mumbai blast accused are being sheltered there.

Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir also accused Indian establishment and armed forces of trying to subvert the agenda of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by making statements which were "a matter of concern".

Any country that attempts to "mimic" the unilateral act of the US will find it has made a "basic miscalculation", Bashir said at the first news conference by a senior Pakistani official on the killing of al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad near here by special US forces on Monday.

"We see a lot of bravado in our own region. There have been statements that have come from across (the border), by senior people from the military and air force, which state that this can be repeated.

"We feel that sort of misadventure or miscalculation would result in a terrible catastrophe," he said in his opening remarks.

He made the remarks in the wake of the statement by army chief Gen V K Singh that Indian forces had the capability to mount raids like the pre-dawn assault by US special forces that resulted in the killing of bin Laden.

Stressing on the military strength of Pakistan, Bashir said if any country would ever act on the assumption that it has a might to unilateralism of any sorts, as far as Pakistan is concerned, will find themselves indulging in misadventure.

"There should be no doubt that Pakistan has adequate capacity to ensure its own defence," he said.

Responding to a query on the remarks of Indian military officials about mounting a raid against leaders of Pak-based terror groups like the Lashkar-e-Taiba, Bashir said such comments are "a matter of concern".

"I only see them as symptomatic of trends and tendencies within the Indian establishment and their armed forces to subvert the agenda of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. I don't think the Indian leadership would really subscribe to this".

Bashir highlighted the need for a "serious constructive approach" and said Pakistan was engaged in a process of dialogue with India.

"We have had good meetings recently between the Home and Interior Secretaries of the two countries on counter-terrorism and counter-narcotics. We have done everything that we can and we are continuing to do in terms of cooperating to avert the possibilities of terror between our two countries", he said.

Bashir even questioned whether the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks could be described as "an intelligence failure or security failure on the part of India."

He also sought to equate the incident to the questions of "incompetence or complicity" being raised about Pakistani security forces in the context of the US raid that killed bin Laden.

Bashir mounted a strong defence of the ISI in the wake of questions raised by US officials about its failure to detect bin Laden even though he was living in a compound located less than a kilometre from the Pakistan Military Academy.

He also sought to dispel the impression that the US raid had taken bilateral relations to a fresh low.

While acknowledging that the unilateral and covert US operation had been successful in eliminating bin Laden, Bashir said it was "fortunate that a major tragedy that could have happened was averted" as the Pakistan Air Force had scrambled two F-16 jets after learning that some helicopters were present over Abbottabad.

Referring to comments by US officials like CIA chief Leon Panetta about the possible complicity of Pakistani security forces or intelligence agencies in sheltering bin Laden, he said such remarks had "continued to surface periodically" to pressure Pakistan to "do more" in the war on terror.

"It's easy to say the ISI or elements within the government were in cahoots with al-Qaeda. This is a false hypothesis and a false charge. It cannot be validated on any account and it flies in the face of what Pakistan and the ISI has been able to accomplish," he contended.

Bashir claimed the ISI had been more successful than even the CIA in capturing or killing al-Qaeda and Taliban elements.

The ISI had shared information on the compound where bin Laden was found since 2009 and had also focussed on Abbottabad since 2004, he said.