Bin Laden neighbours piece together mystery lives

Neighbours piecing together clues about the mysterious figures behind the walls of an imposing Pakistani villa wondered today what brushes they had with Osama bin Laden's household.

Two low-key businessmen living in the high-security house, known to some in the neighbourhood as Arshad and Tariq Khan, were often to be seen in the streets of the garrison town of Abbottabad.

Arshad, a man of around 40, apparently bought the land and built the house, while Tariq was believed to be aged in his 30s. Some neighbours thought they were brothers, while others said they were cousins.

Five people died in late Sunday's dramatic raid on the fortified compound by US forces, including the Al-Qaeda leader himself, a woman believed to be his wife, one of his sons, his trusted courier and the courier's brother.

Neighbours wondered which among them were the mild-mannered men they used to see out buying bread or transporting family members including women and children.

Jawed Jadi, a cook in a dusty local eaterie, said he often saw Arshad and Tariq taking their families out.

"We used to see two men, Arshad and Tariq. We saw them taking their wives and children in a red Suzuki Carry (minivan). Sometimes the men were coming with children to buy bread," he said.

It was bin Laden's reliance on his courier that led to his downfall, with years of dogged intelligence work chasing the trail of the trusted figure who ferried the Saudi-born kingpin's missives to the outside world.

Last August US agencies pinpointed the compound where the courier lived with his brother in the affluent suburbs of Abbottabad, about 50 kilometres (30 miles) northwest of the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

Mohammed Asif, who bakes traditional naan bread for five rupees (six cents) apiece in his simple shop, was delighted that he may have cooked bin Laden's last supper. He said Arshad came in on the evening before the attack.

"Arshad came and bought seven or eight naans. He used to do that twice a day, in the afternoon and in the evening.

"They were two Pashto brothers, one around 37 and the other 42, very kind and respectful with other people in the neighbourhood," he told AFP, referring to the Pashtun people of Afghanistan and northwest Pakistan.

"Sometimes one came with a child aged around five," he recalled.

"They did not look like strangers: we are simple people, but when we see a stranger in town, we notice it immediately."

Asked how he felt to have been bin Laden's baker, Asif said: "I'm proud of it, because he was a hero who challenged America."

"I will tell my grandchildren that it was not our army that launched an offensive against him, it was the Americans."

Abdullah Jan -- not his real name -- lives close to the sprawling bin Laden compound, which is surrounded by towering walls. He arrived four years ago when it had already been built and its occupants ensconced.

"First I thought they were Pakistani Pashto, but now when I think about it, some things were not very Pashto," he told AFP, asking his real name not be used.

"Their skin was whiter, sometimes they trimmed their beard the Arabic way and in their attitudes they were less blunt than Pashto people."

Asked why excessive security at the villa never aroused suspicions, he said: "We thought Arshad was a rich man with some enmity from family or business.

"They told us that they were from Peshawar and that they had a currency/money business."

Among his four wives, bin Laden is known to have married at least one Pashtun woman.

Jan said the household also had a small Suzuki jeep, and that they kept a cow and chickens.

He said the women of the household never called on other wives, odd in a culture where such social engagement is customary, and that the males would not give him a telephone number.

"They never went to any wedding or visited people. And they never gave their mobile number. I asked him (Tariq), but he told me he didn't have one," Jan smiled.

The family rarely went walking, always going about day-to-day business by car. And despite reports that bin Laden was frail and ill, Jan said he never saw any doctor make regular home visits.