Before moving to the sprawling mansion in Abbottabad where he was killed, al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden had stayed for some time at a village on the highway to the Pakistani city, said investigators.
Dawn quoted officials as saying that before moving to the mansion in Abbottabad towards the end of 2005, Osama had lived with his family for nearly two-and-a-half years in Chak Shah Mohammad, a village in the nearby district of Haripur.
The village is located on the highway to Abbottabad and is just two km from Haripur town.
The official said that Osama had been living in Pakistan for seven and a half years.
Osama bin Laden was killed May 2 by crack US commandos who stormed his hideout in Abbottabad. He was later buried at sea.
An official said that Osama had possibly left the country’s tribal region sometime in 2003.
The West had believed that Osama was hiding in the tribal region in the restive Pakistan-Afghanistan border.
“Imagine, this guy was living in our midst in Haripur and Abbottabad for seven and a half years and we all, both Pakistanis and Americans, had been looking for him in the wrong direction,” the official said.
{{/usCountry}}“Imagine, this guy was living in our midst in Haripur and Abbottabad for seven and a half years and we all, both Pakistanis and Americans, had been looking for him in the wrong direction,” the official said.
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