It has emerged that Rashid and Akbar Khan, the two Pakistanis who helped Osama bin Laden hide in the shadows of their country’s army, bought large food orders for those living at the compound. They chose big brands and equally favoured Pepsi and Coke, neighbours and a local shopkeeper have claimed.

So, after all of that, our man was a consumerist all along. As much as he despised the West and everything to do with it, it seems he liked our things.

According to local grocer Anjum Qaisar, 27, who works in a store about 150m from the compound, Rashid and Akbar did the daily shopping in the Pashtu-language accents of Waziristan, a region on the Afghan border.

Qaisar explained:

[They] always bought the best brands – Nestle milk, the good-quality soaps and shampoos. They always paid cash, never asked for credit.

[They] never came by foot, they always drove a Pajero or a little Suzuki van, and they bought enough food for 10 people.

I was curious about why they bought so much food, but I did not want to be rude by asking.

They had been purchasing their meat from a butcher nearby who had chosen to remain closed yesterday.

The Khans reportedly told neighbours they had fled a violent tribal feud in Waziristan to seek a calmer life in Abbottabad.

Altaf Khan, 35, a neighbour whose house is on the same street, knew that Arabic-speaking women “lived inside that house because our children heard them through the gate one day and told us.”

The same children were banned from fetching the balls they had accidentally kicked over into the compound by accident.

[Source: Bloomberg]