Saturday, March 29, 2025
The world once again recalled the terror of Osama bin Laden during the anniversary of the 9/11 attacks and recent mentions of his name at the United Nations by Israel. The Al-Qaeda chief, responsible for some of the deadliest terrorist strikes in history, was finally killed on May 2, 2011, in a dramatic U.S. Navy SEAL raid at his safehouse in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The 40-minute operation eliminated America’s most wanted enemy and confirmed what India had long warned the world about Pakistan’s covert sheltering of extremists.
In the aftermath, questions arose globally: How could the world’s most dangerous terrorist live undisturbed near a Pakistani military base? While Pakistan faced global embarrassment, another question has persisted over the years — what became of Osama bin Laden’s wives and children, who were present during the raid?
That answer has now surfaced in a book by Farhatullah Babar, former spokesperson and close aide of ex-President Asif Ali Zardari.
In his book “The Zardari Presidency: Now It Must Be Told”, Babar reveals that soon after Osama’s death, the Pakistani military took his wives into custody. However, not long after, a CIA team arrived at the Abbottabad cantonment, where the women were being held. Shockingly, the American agents began interrogating them openly, inside a Pakistani military facility.
According to Babar, this blatant act raised serious questions about Pakistan’s sovereignty, exposing the weakness of its military and political leadership.
Babar writes that the episode led to deep national humiliation. While U.S. agents operated freely on Pakistani soil, the country’s military and government appeared helpless. He further claims that the most shameful revelation was that American intelligence had already known of Osama’s presence in Abbottabad well before the raid — including details of the contractor who had built his secret hideout.
The discovery of bin Laden in Pakistan led to global ridicule of Islamabad, with critics pointing to its double-faced policies on terrorism. Despite the humiliation, Pakistan continued attempts to project sovereignty before its people.
After the raid, several high-profile American leaders, including then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Senator John Kerry, visited Pakistan. Islamabad sought assurances that the U.S. would not launch another unilateral strike in the future. But, according to Babar, Washington never gave such a guarantee.
The episode remains one of the darkest chapters in Pakistan’s history, exposing both its vulnerability and duplicity in handling terrorism.
