The official sources both in Washington and Islamabad have confirmed the death of Osama bin Laden in a military operation in a non-descript locality near Abbottabad on the night between Sunday and Monday. Taking all the credit for the action, President Barack Obama disclosed in some detail how the American Special Forces in Pakistan hunted out the world's most wanted person and targeted him in a highly professional operation.
Some four hours later - much to the common man's chagrin - Pakistan government also confirmed Osama's death, whose outfit al Qaeda, it said, has imposed a perpetual war on the country, causing thousands of deaths. Beyond this commonality there is nothing to define it as a joint operation - though facts on the ground remain profoundly disputed.
The Pakistan government seems to be walking between the raindrops smooth as a pearl; while insisting that bin Laden was a global terrorism curse the statement tries to convey that Pakistan was not part of the operation, because the Americans 'followed its stated policy that they would strike the al Qaeda chief wherever found'. Given basic contours of the entire operation and its disclosure, in the style and language it was made, much is yet to be said and what we know today may turn out to be merely a fiction story tomorrow.
No doubt, consequent to this operation, the much-beleaguered Obama administration gets what it desperately wanted to square up its failures on myriad fronts that threaten to badly hurt prospects of his re-election next year. There were questions about his stand on Afghanistan war, particularly in the context of his position to begin a limited drawdown of troops from July this year despite growing adversarial developments on the ground.
President Obama would be much better placed now to tell Americans that with Osama bin Laden taken care of the US interests, at home and abroad, are considerably safe and secure. The fact is that ever since 9/11 al Qaeda was never more than a distant thunder for the mainland United States, and the al Qaeda leader was never more than a shadow and his outfit not more than a symbol of terrorism's painful consequences.
Even as late as some weeks ago, senior US intelligence officials were saying the al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan may not be more than a few dozens in numbers - only a little more than that in Pakistan. But the American generalship and its European colleagues would not like to rest unless they record battle victories in Afghanistan and around this region.
However, what places Pakistan government and its intelligence services on horns of a dilemma, is the blame - among others, loudly voiced by Admiral Mullen as recently as last month - that Pakistan is a safe haven for al Qaeda and its affiliates. Last year and before that also there was the continuous din about the so-called 'Quetta Shura' as one of the most formidable safe havens for the Taliban who, it was said, go from there into Afghanistan to fight the Coalition forces.
Obviously, bin Laden's presence in Abbottabad, and so close to a military installation as the Kakul Military Academy, will become handy with anti-Pakistan lobbies in the West which never tires of branding our country as the epicentre of international terrorism. And, if the position taken by the Pakistan government today that striking at the suspected terrorist hideouts is the stated American policy is accepted as fait accompli then we are indeed in for much deeper CIA-led incursions.
Whatever little mutual trust is left between the intelligence services of US and Pakistan is expected to further erode - even if it's a reality that our intelligence services had no inkling whatsoever of bin Laden's existence in Abbottabad the CIA is not going to believe. And, if he was the target of a joint operation, though the government vehemently denies, the public in the West is not going to give us any marks for our collaboration.
In Osama's death Pakistan is indeed confronted with a double blow or setbacks - the West's 'do more' dictates and some quarters' call that Pakistan backing the anti-Islam forces, therefore, should be confronted with violent protests.
As if the aftermath of Raymond Davis affair was not enough to undermine the Pak-US strategic relationship, the killing of al Qaeda chief brings Pakistan to a fork as to what should be the nature of this strategic partnership. There is no point in running with the hare and hunting with the hounds or trying to support two opposing aims at the same time - clearly very difficult or impossible. Pakistan has its own national interests in this region including Afghanistan which may be at some variance with the Americans'.
As the two sides meet for their third trilateral strategic dialogue here later this month, there should be frank discussion on this divergence as it is real and shall keep bedeviling the trilateral relationship unless recast in line with emerging realities. Meanwhile, the law-enforcement agencies should prepare for the reaction on the part of the al Qaeda which may not be very long-lasting but in short-term could be severe and pronounced, posing new challenges to our ability and capacity to fight off terrorism.