Osama house contractor detained, freed

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities on Wednesday detained and later released a contractor who had constructed the compound that sheltered Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad.

Sources said Nur Muhammad told his interrogators that one Arshad Khan from Charsadda in Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province had given him the contract to construct the house in 2004. Muhammad, aged between 45-50 , completed the construction in 2005 just before a devastating earthquake flattened much of northern Pakistan.

The contractor, from Battagram town about 35km north of Abbottabad , was picked up from the city’s Jharian locality and taken to an undisclosed location for questioning. Police said Muhammad was paid in Pakistani currency for the construction .

CIA director Leon Panetta has said bin Laden lived there for five years.

One of Khan’s neighbours, Qazi Mahfooz Ul Haq, described him a ‘‘ modest, humble man who did not seem to be a militant’’ . The neighbour, a doctor, had sold a piece of the land where bin Laden’s hideout was built. Residents said Khan was one of two men living in the house. Property records obtained by Associated Press show that Mohammed Arshad bought adjoining plots in four stages between 2004 and 2005 for $48,000.

The two appear to be the same person and the names may be fake, the agency said.
Haq told AP he sold the plot to Khan in 2005. He said the buyer was a sturdy man with a tuft of hair under his lower lip.

He spoke with an accent that sounded like he was from Waziristan. The region is believed to al-Qaida’s sanctuary.

The house is large but it was unclear how three dozen people could have lived there with any degree of comfort.
According to agencies, Khurshid Bibi, in her 70s, said one man living in the compound had given her a lift to the market in the rain. She said her grandchildren played with the kids in the house and that the adults there gave them rabbits as a gift.

What Happened To The Chopper

Helicopter destroyed to prevent it from falling into enemy hands Pentagon sources say the Navy Seals planned to take bin Laden’s family with them. They were forced to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters crash-landed The chopper apparently clipped a tail rotor on the wall of the compound With the tail rotor damaged, pilot was forced to set down