Residents for statue of peace at the site of Osama's compound

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Residents of Bilal town in the Pakistani garrison city of Abbottabad where Osama Bin Laden was killed last year have asked the government to build a ‘statue of peace’ or a beautiful monument at the site of his compound to remind the world that there is no place for such a terrorist mastermind.

Ahead of the first anniversary of the death of the al-Qaeda chief on May 2, security forces have been put on high alert across Pakistan to counter any possible terrorist attacks.

"We have written to the Pakistan government to build either a statue of peace or a beautiful monument at the site where Laden lived illegally.

"By doing so, we should give a message to the world that the man who was the symbol of terror is no more along with his philosophy. His elimination will bring peace to the world," Zubair Ahmed, a resident of Bilal Town neighbourhood where bin Laden's compound was located, said on phone.

Ahmed, a banker by profession, said he had heard that a playground would be built at the site of the compound, which was demolished in February.

"These days, boys playing cricket there," he said.

Bin Laden lived at the compound in Bilal Town with his three wives and several children for about five years before he was killed in a unilateral US military raid early on May 2 last year.

The operation embarrassed the Pakistan security establishment, which was dogged by questions about whether senior officials had been aware of bin Laden's presence in a compound located a stone's throw from the elite Pakistan Military Academy.

Even a year after the US operation, certain restrictions continue to affect the lives of residents of Abbottabad district.