THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Wounded pride and tall stories about bin Laden’s killing could be a lethal mix, says Peter Oborne in Islamabad.Their anger and frustration was palpable. The mobs who gathered in the streets across Pakistan yesterday rallied to mourn the killing of Osama bin Laden by American forces – and promised revenge. Hundreds of men spilled out of Friday prayers in the military town of Abbottabad, where the al-Qaeda leader was killed this week. Tyres were set alight and abusive chants directed at the United States rang through the streets.
Similar rallies were taking place in several other Pakistani cities – but it must be said that their scale and ferocity was by no means as great as the country’s militant religious groups had hoped.
As I understand it, one explanation for the muted reaction may be that Pakistan feels like a country on the edge of a nervous breakdown. It is a profoundly proud nation and its people are finding it painful to come to terms with the discovery of the world’s most wanted terrorist on national soil.
Some are taking refuge in denial, and, as I walked round Abbottabad earlier this week, few people – even those who had actually witnessed the US attack – were ready to admit that bin Laden had been even living in the town. For almost a decade Pakistan politicians and religious leaders have been adamant that the terror chief was outside Pakistan or, at worst, living in one of the remote tribal areas, and effectively outside the control of the state.
Even al-Qaeda took a full four days to acknowledge its figurehead was dead – only doing so yesterday, in a statement which also vowed to wreak dire retaliation. Read on and comment » | Peter Oborne | Saturday, May 07, 2011
