 Osama bin Laden could hide more easily in a city than a remote tribal region, a former Pakistani intelligence chief said on Tuesday, challenging the notion that the Al Qaeda leader is probably holed up in a mountain cave.
| My guess is that he's in Qazi's guest house, and has been since late 2001. |
Lt General Asad Durrani, former head of the ISI, said news of outsiders’ presence travels fast in the tribal areas and it would be hard to keep it secret for years. “In the countryside or in tribal areas ... it’s difficult to hide yourself because there people live ... and operate in a manner in which finding out about unusual presence is very important,” Durrani told Reuters in an interview in London. He said it was true that tribal customs placed great value on showing hospitality and not betraying a guest. “In the tribal code, anyone who seeks your protection has to be defended, with your life if necessary.” However, “I am not sure over a period of four, five or six years that it would be possible even for the tribesmen to keep his presence under wraps,” he added.
Such information would have travelled or been divulged, given the incentives, Durrani said in a reference to the $25 million US bounty on bin Laden’s head. “My conclusion therefore is that it’s extremely unlikely that he is around that place.” |
