By IANS,
Islamabad : Osama bin Laden’s house should have been left intact so that “present and future generations can view them as a past that should not be repeated”, said a leading daily after authorities razed the Al Qaeda chief’s hideout in Abbottabad.
In an operation that began Saturday night, authorities Monday finished demolishing the three-storey house in Abbottabad where Osama bin Laden was found and killed by American commandos May 2 last year.
An editorial in the Dawn wondered what prompted the state to send in bulldozers several months after the world’s most wanted man was hunted down in the garrison town.
“Is there any justification for erasing a structure that, notwithstanding its uncomfortable implications for the country’s security establishment, was a potent symbol of the ongoing war against terrorism?,” it asked.
The editorial admitted that Osama bin Laden, who was the mastermind behind a wave of terrorism that left communities divided and changed the course of history, “was living in relative obscurity in Pakistan for several years undetected was a major embarrassment to the authorities”.
It went on to say that while some countries have attempted to erase uncomfortable symbols of their past, many others have retained them as reminders of the oppression they once witnessed or even perpetuated.
“Nazi concentration camps and segments of the Berlin Wall are prominent examples in Germany.
“Structures such as the now demolished Bin Laden house too have symbolic significance and should be left intact so that present and future generations can view them as a past that should not be repeated,” it said.
The editorial criticised the theory that the house would have become a shrine to the Al Qaeda chief does not hold, “for apart from a small jihadi fringe which lionises him, most Pakistanis remain indifferent to his death”.