By ANTHONY BOND
Daily Mail UK
Osama Bin Laden’s hideout will be spectacularly destroyed by the Pakistan military in front of TV cameras, it has emerged.
Military chiefs plan to launch rocket propelled grenades at the mansion hideout in Abbottabad. It will then be bulldozed in order to prevent the walled complex from becoming a shrine to the former Al Qaeda leader.
The terror chief – responsible for the 9/11 attacks – was dramatically killed by U.S Navy Seals at the hideout, which is 30 miles from the capital Islamabad, on May 2.
According to the New York Post, Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said: ‘We will hit it like an enemy fort. ‘But first we must erase everything related to bin Laden from our country.’
U.S and European officials will be invited to the demolition, which will take place next month.
A military spokesman promised it would be a ‘big event’.
Following the raid on the hideout – which was watched by U.S President Barack Obama live on TV – Bin Laden was buried at sea. But it led to increasing tensions between Pakistan and the U.S. with Pakistan particularly stung by claims that it turned a blind eye to the hideout.
The U.S had been extremely critical of Pakistan, with some suggestions that elements within the army or intelligence services were deliberately harbouring Bin Laden.
A tug of war also broke out between the two countries after U.S officials were initially refused permission to talk to Bin Laden’s three captured wives following the raid.
Pakistan repeatedly refused U.S. demands to interview the women, saying they should have been forewarned about the mission.
Tensions between the two countries were then pushed close to collapse when an errant U.S airstrike in November killed 24 Pakistani troops close to the Afghan border.
After the American strike, Islamabad shut down vital supply routes into Afghanistan and forced the U.S. to vacate Shamsi Air Base in southwestern Baluchistan province.
The U.S. used the base to service drones that targeted militants in the tribal regions close to Afghanistan.
Those tensions, however, could now be reignited after an American drone strike killed four Islamist militants in Pakistan yesterday.