Where is Osama bin Laden? If you’re reading this in the Western hemisphere, then your first guess is probably the bottom of the Indian Ocean. But if you’re in Pakistan, where the self-avowed leader of al Qaeda was tracked down last week and killed in a fire-fight with US Special Forces, then you might think otherwise.
YouGov, the global opinion pollster, in association with Polis at Cambridge University, conducted a survey in Pakistan shortly after bin Laden’s demise, using a recruited online sample focusing on more educated respondents among the three main cities of Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore.
The fact this survey excluded rural and less educated demographic groups actually makes the results more striking: according to the YouGov poll, a staggering 66 per cent of Pakistanis think the person who was killed by US Navy Seals in the compound outside Islamabad was not bin Laden.
But it would be a mistake to confuse this with generalised sympathy for the man. Survey results also suggest that Pakistan was an imperfect hiding place for the world’s most wanted outlaw, with 48 per cent of Pakistanis saying bin Laden was not a true Muslim leader.
Some 35 per cent believe he was a mass murderer of Muslims but 42 per cent disagree with this. One in three say he actually declared war on Pakistan. Roughly half of all respondents feel negative about the idea of an association between Pakistan’s national intelligence agency (the ISI) and al Qaeda.
In other words, bin Laden is neither outright hero nor downright villain in Pakistan. What is clear is that there is a consensus of distrust towards the American version of reality and a majority who oppose US policies in the region, with 75 per cent of respondents critical of US actions in hunting bin Laden on Pakistani soil.
Full story at http://www.yougov.polis.cam.ac.uk/pakistan-poll-66-say-us-forces-didnt-kill-bin-laden
