Computer programmer unknowingly live-tweets Osama raid
Posted May 2, 2011 12:44 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A Pakistani computer programmer, startled by helicopters, took to Twitter to complain about the noise Sunday — but inadvertently gave a play-by-play of the high-stakes capture of the world’s most-wanted man.
“Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM (is a rare event),” his tweet read.
Soon Sohaib Athar, 33, (@ReallyVirtual) gained 14,000 followers as he unknowingly described the events to capture Osama bin Laden, relaying rumours swirling around the town.
“The few people online at this time of the night are saying one of the copters was not Pakistani,” he tweeted.
“Report from a taxi driver: The army has cordoned off the crash area and is conducting door-to-door search in the surrounding,” he tweeted.
The story quickly grew much bigger for Athar, as news of bin Laden’s death became official.
“Uh oh, now I’m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it,” he tweeted.
Athar moved to the upscale town from the city of Lahore after his wife and child were badly injured in a car accident in July.
“Osama Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan,” Athar tweeted. “There goes the neighbourhood.”
