Killing of Osama bin Laden: How techie from Pak's Abbottabad unwittingly live-blogged the raid on Twitter on May 2, 2011

Osama bin Laden, the founder and head of the Islamist group Al-Qaeda, was killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011, shortly after 1am PKT by United States Navy SEALs of the US Naval Special Warfare Development Group. The operation's code name was Operation Neptune Spear.

The raid on Osama bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, was launched from Afghanistan and the Navy SEALs took his body to Afghanistan for identification, then buried him at sea within 24 hours of his death.

Just after the US raids began in Abbottabad, there was one guy in the city who made history on Twitter because of his series of tweets during the US operation.  

On May 2, 2011 at 1am, a software engineer Sohaib Athar from Abbottabad (@ReallyVirtual on Twitter) noticed a helicopter flying nere his home and accidentally ended up live-Tweeting the raid by US Navy SEALs on Osama bin Laden’s compound.

Sohaib Athar remembered the night and tweeted about it on Tuesday, six years after the fateful night.

Didn't realize it was that time of the year...

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2017

Let's have a look at the series of tweets Athar posted on the early hours on May 2 about the raids -

Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event).

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

Athar didn't have any idea what was happening in Abbottabad, but with that one tweet, he become the first person to report on a big breaking news story on May 2, 2011.

He was the guy who unwittingly live-blogged the Osama bin Laden raid. And, he kept tweeting about the raids.    

Here are few of his tweets about the raids -

Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter :-/

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

A huge window shaking bang here in Abbottabad Cantt. I hope its not the start of something nasty :-S

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

Since taliban (probably) don't have helicpoters, and since they're saying it was not "ours", so must be a complicated situation #abbottabad

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

@m0hcin the few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani...

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

Since taliban (probably) don't have helicpoters, and since they're saying it was not "ours", so must be a complicated situation #abbottabad

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

Two helicpoters, one down, could actually be the training accident scenario they're saying it was >> https://bit.ly/ioGE6O

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

@smedica people are saying it was not a technical fault and it was shot down. I heard it CIRCLE 3-4 times above, sounded purposeful.

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

And now, a plane flying over Abbottabad...

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

The abbottabad helicopter/UFO was shot down near the Bilal Town area, and there's report of a flash. People saying it could be a drone.

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 1, 2011

 

Interesting rumors in the otherwise uneventful Abbottabad air today

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 2, 2011

 

I guess Abbottabad is going to get as crowded as the Lahore that I left behind for some peace and quiet. *sigh*

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 2, 2011

 

Report from a taxi driver: The army has cordoned off the crash area and is conducting door-to-door search in the surrounding

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 2, 2011

 

RT @ISuckBigTime: Osama Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan.: ISI has confirmed it << Uh oh, there goes the neighborhood :-/

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 2, 2011

Later, when he realised that he was tweeting about the US Nave SEALs operation to kill Osama bin Laden, he expressed his thoughts in final tweets -

Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 2, 2011

 

Bin Laden is dead. I didn't kill him. Please let me sleep now.

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 2, 2011

 

and here come the mails from the mainstream media... *sigh*

— Sohaib Athar (@ReallyVirtual) May 2, 2011

Later, Storify collected all his original tweets and some of the conversation they prompted posted on that night and published here.