Pakistan Debates On What Should Be Done With The Field Where Osama Bin Laden's Compound Once Stood

Local people and media gather outside the perimeter wall and sealed gate into the compound and a house where al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden was caught and killed late Monday, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, on Tuesday, May 3, 2011. Cryptome

Washington Post: Osama bin Laden’s Pakistan hideout could be turned into a children’s playground or a graveyard

A years-long Pakistani land dispute pitting the military against the civilian government is culminating in one seemingly simple question: Should the field where Osama bin Laden’s compound once stood be turned into a playground, or a graveyard?

The local cantonment administration, largely controlled by the military, is pushing for the graveyard. They seek to rectify “a serious shortage of graveyards in the area,” said Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, a cantonment administration official, according to the Times in London.

The government wants a playground. Mushtaq Ghani, the Information Minister of the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial government, told the Times, “You can’t develop a cemetery in the middle of houses.”

But this seemingly minor disagreement is a reflection of years of disputes between the two stakeholders over who, exactly, controls the 38,000 square feet in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where Osama bin Laden hid for five years.

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WNU Editor: Turning it into a graveyard will attract Jihadi wannabes who want to be buried on the same ground that Osama Bin Laden walked. If it was to me, I would build a Christian church on it .... just to aggravate these people.