June 2022

I always wanted to see the Bin Laden compound site, so when I began planning my trip to Pakistan in summer 2022, I knew that Karachi and Lahore were too far away from Abbottabad, the city where he spent his remaining couple of years after he moved away from Pashawar.
Islamabad, on the other hand, the capital city, would be the quicker option, only about 2 1/2 hours away by car. I rented out my own driver for the day and he was willing to take me, but we needed a lot of help once we arrived in Abbottabad because the site is difficult to find and Abbatobad is not well signposted and not as modern as neighboring Islamabad. My guide had a general idea about how to get to the district itself, and once there, he would ask some locals for the exact location.

It was all a bit messy, the backstreets were so difficult to navigate around and the roads were not well maintained, probably the way Bin Laden would have wanted it. We asked a couple of the locals and we were met with awkward stares, before one local guided us in the correct direction, which is in an obscure area, followed by another few turns and twists and barely enough road to drive on, repeatedly meandering around from right to left, until we eventually found the exact location, though it did take a lot longer than initially expected.

There wasn’t a lot remaining in 2022, the compound itself was destroyed shortly after 2011, soon after his death took place, but the foundation of the house and some of the walls still exist.
It was a strange feeling walking around the area, some kids were playing on the site, and I was tempted to ask them if they knew anything the history of the area. It’s now just a wasteland of dirt and mud and a play area for the local kids who were playing cricket. I remember thinking how crazy it must have been when the raid took place in May 2011 when the Americans carried out the attack, landing military helicopters right next to his house,killing him, and burying his body at sea that night.

I didn’t spend too long on the compound itself, the site is quite big, he had a large area to grow his crops and had a mini farm on the site itself and some add-on buildings, plus the building where he lived was about 4 stories high.

I didn’t want to attract any unnecessary attention + the Pakistani Military Academy was only about 3 Km away from the compound and you can hear gunshots and listen to the training nearby, so my driver recommended just a quick walk around the site itself. It’s kind of weird that he lived right around the corner from one of Pakistan’s largest military bases. Just a tad bit suspicious? It’s strongly rumored that they were keeping him safe for years and years, but the exact story is still unclear!