The Americans claim they were led to the Abbottabad compound by homing in on a “courier” of Osama bin Laden. A Saudi Arabian newspaper has suggested Bin Laden was betrayed by Ayman al-Zawahiri, his Egyptian number two. In India, though, the security establishment is pursuing a different approach.
Well-placed sources here say the Qaeda leader was, in all likelihood, done in by a Pakistani “Vibhishan”.
The US establishment’s courier theory, they say, is too pat, too “simplistic”. A good courier would not let himself be secretly followed.
In this theory, the high-level Pakistanis involved could include former President Pervez Musharraf, Army Chief Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani or ISI chief Lt. Gen. Shuja Pasha. Or was it a senior Army or ISI figure lured by America’s $50 million bounty on Bin Laden’s head?