Interview with man who sold land bin Laden
ABBOTTABAD: The Pakistani man who owned the compound that sheltered Osama bin Laden in his final years said he was buying the property for "an uncle," according to the doctor who sold him a piece of the land in 2005.
The man was identified in property records as Mohammad Arshad; neighbors said one of two Pakistani men living in the house went by the name Arshad Khan.
The two names apparently refer to the same man and both names may be fake.
But one thing is clear, bin Laden relied on a small, trusted inner circle as lifelines to the outside that provided for his daily needs such as food and medicine and kept his location secret.
And it appears they did not betray him.
Among those in that inner circle were Arshad and another man who has been identified as either his brother or cousin.
Arshad is suspected as the courier who ultimately led the Americans to bin Laden, unwittingly, after years of painstaking tracking.
American officials said the courier and his brother were killed in the American commando raid on Monday in the northwestern Pakistani town of Abbottabad.
Qazi Mahfooz ul Haq, a doctor, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that he sold a plot of land to Arshad in 2005.
He said the buyer was a sturdily built man who had a tuft of hair under his lower lip.
He spoke with an accent that sounded like it was from Waziristan, a tribal region close to Afghanistan that is home to many al-Qaida operatives.
Neighbors identified Arshad Khan as one of two Pakistani men living in the house where bin Laden hid for up to six years.
Property records obtained by The Associated Press show Mohammad Arshad bought adjoining plots in four stages between 2004 and 2005 for 48-thousand US Dollars.
Ul Haq saw Arshad a few times after he sold him the land, he said.
"He was a good and simple humble type of man," he said.
Arshad bought two other plots used for the compound in a less transparent transaction in November 2004, according to a review of the property records.
Raja Imtiaz Ahmed, who previously owned the two plots, said he sold them to a middleman who may have then passed them on to Arshad.
He could not recall the middleman's name and was looking for records that would reveal it.
Bin Laden may have been living in the house for up to six years before US Navy Seals raided the compound and shot the al-Qaida leader.
A total of 10-12 people, including six or seven children, and a woman were seized from the compound and are all in Pakistani custody, a Pakistani intelligence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with the agency's policy.
The woman, whose nationality the official would not disclose, is wounded and undergoing treatment at a hospital, he said.
Pakistan has stepped up its attempt to convince the world that it didn't know where bin Laden was located.
They maintain that the al-Qaida leader's ability to hide in Abbottabad, an army town just two hours drive from the capital, was the result of government oversight, not double dealing.