New Delhi: Exactly 11 years ago on this day, al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden was killed by a Special Operations unit of the United States military in Pakistan's Abbottabad in a discreet operation. While many may not know, an IT consultant living in Abbottabad, who was the neighbour of Laden, unknowingly live-tweeted details of the US-led operation as it happened.
Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual on Twitter), an IT contractor and graduate of Preston University, gained instant fame after his live tweets gave the world the first hint of the US operation to eliminate Laden.
In his Twitter bio, Sohaib Athar describes himself as: "An IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops." Cut to 2022, Athar is now CEO and co-founder of Auxcube.
On May 2, 2011, his first tweet came at 1.28 am when Athar heard the whirring of rotor blades of a helicopter above his two-storey house. "Helicopter hovering around above Abbottabad at 1 am (is a rare event)," he tweeted.
The sound of the helicopter left Athar frustrated. "Go away helicopter – before I take out my giant swatter," he tweeted.
Four minutes later, came his third tweet, where he reported the sound of an explosion. "A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantonment. I hope it's not the start of something nasty :-S," Athar wrote.
During this period, Athar was also in touch with friends in the area. "The few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani," Athar tweeted next.
One of the two Black Hawk helicopters carrying the US commandos crashed inside bin Laden's high-walled compound.
All of those aboard the helicopter emerged unhurt. After the raid was over, the US Navy SEALs destroyed the downed helicopter with explosives. It was this sound that Athar seems to have tweeted.
A few minutes later, Athar tweeted again, saying, "Since taliban (probably) don't have helicpoters, and since they're saying it was not 'ours', so must be a complicated situation."
At 2.40 am, he said the helicopter was shot down near the Bilal Town area. "The abbottabad helicopter/UFO was shot down near the Bilal Town area, and there's report of a flash. People saying it could be a drone," he tweeted.
It was only at 10 am in the morning that the truth about last night's events dawned upon Athar. "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who live-blogged the Osama raid without knowing it," he tweeted.
As the news spread, Athar received a deluge of messages and calls from news organisations demanding to talk to him. "Bin Laden is dead. I didn't kill him. Please let me sleep now," he tweeted on May 2 in the evening.
In an interview with CNN, Athar said many accused him of being a CIA agent. He was even called to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, for questioning by a judicial commission set up by the government to investigate the events in Abbottabad. While Athar was released, he claimed the head of the commission told him to "tweet on".