Musician and guitarist Salman Ahmad has hailed Osama bin Laden’s death as a victory for the Islamic world and demanded accountability over how the al-Qaeda chief lived in his country for years. The musician whose band Junoon is one of the most popular acts in South Asia with more than 30 million albums sold, said Pakistanis felt humiliated that the world’s most-wanted man resided in the garrison town of Abbottabad.
“In the last 1,400 years of Islamic history, there has rarely been a man or woman — Muslim or non-Muslim — who has caused more damage to Muslims around the world than Osama bin Laden,” Salman who recently performed in Washington told AFP. He said he had “massive questions” — including how bin Laden lived at a stone’s throw from Pakistan’s top military academy and why he apparently felt safe enough to maintain minimum protection.
He also asked how the military and Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) did not detect a US-operation deep into Pakistani territory. “If there was any other country where this happened — the intelligence failure on Osama and the intelligence failure on the US operation — the first thing the president would do is to ask for the resignation of the intelligence chief and ask many questions from the army chief,” he said.
Ahmad, 47, left a medical career to lead Junoon which means “passion” in Urdu. He now teaches music at the City University of New York’s Queens College but returns regularly to Pakistan to perform and lead humanitarian efforts.
