5 years later, Osama bin Laden's Abbottabad neighbors describe the aftermath of the 2011 raid

It's been five years since Osama bin Laden was killed inside his Abbottabad, Pakistan, compound, and neighbors say things haven't been the same since.

The bin Laden compound was razed a few months after his death. Bin Laden's closest neighbor was 84-year-old Zain Baba, who worked with his son as a night watchman for Arshad Khan, a man who lived in the bin Laden compound with his brother. Khan was known to American intelligence as bin Laden's courier Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti, and they traced phone calls he made to the compound.

Baba lived across the street in a small house, and because he had access to some areas of the compound, he was picked up by Pakistani intelligence and held in custody for two months. "They would tie our hands, blindfold us, and take us for long drives from one place to another," he told the BBC. "They wanted to know if we saw Osama in the compound. We kept telling them that we didn't see anyone except the two brothers and some children." Even today, he says, "men in plain clothes riding government vehicles" approach him after he grants interviews to foreign journalists, and warn against "talking to such people." Read more about the neighbors rounded up after the bin Laden raid — including a policeman who still hasn't returned home — at the BBC.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up