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Pakistanis, angered and embarrassed by the US raid that killed Osama bin Laden in the garrison city of Abbottabad, have turned to humour with a vengeance to take a dig at the powerful military for its failure to trace the world’s most wanted terrorist.Bin Laden has been dead for over a week but the joke factory thriving on his death shows no signs of dying.
Globally, most jokes have bin Laden as a protagonist reporting from “hell” or busy plotting “Satan’s death”.
In Pakistan, the jokes are pegged on the army, which many people believe was clueless about the Al Qaeda leader’s whereabouts even as he hid in a compound located a stone’s throw from the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad.
One SMS doing the rounds over the past few days read: “No honking: the army is asleep”.
Another said: “Public Service Message from the Army: Stay alert. Don’t rely on us.” The joke
most frequently exchanged on SMS and on micro-blogging sites like Twitter was: “Pakistan radar system for sale: $99.99, buy one, get one free (Can’t detect US helicopters but can receive Star Plus.)” There has been a huge debate in Pakistan on whether the air force’s radars failed to detect the helicopters that carried US special forces to Abbottabad or were jammed.
Pakistan’s civil and military leadership have said they had no prior information of the daring pre-dawn raid. A few Pakistanis have contributed to “pakistanantijokes” trending on Twitter.
A Twitter user with the name ‘JernailKyaNahin’ has kept everyone in fits over the past week with his “Oye Pasha jokes”, a reference to ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who has faced much flak for the failure to detect bin Laden’s presence as well as the US raid.
Others have directed their tweets at Obama: “Dear Obama, pliss take it easy; we don’t actually wish to be blamed for keeping our guest in poverty and not providing 4 his upkeep.”
Lalbrofessor, another Twitter user known for his humour directed at mullahs and right-wing elemenst, highlighted the fact that Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza, married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, was no longer Pakistan’s only high-profile foreign “bahu”.
“Diyar Sania, the honeymoon ij over. We have 3 new daughters-in-law...And Whoa!! 17 sons and daughters oph Pakistan!!”, he tweeted, referring to the capture of bin Laden’s three wives and several children after the US raid.
Globally, most jokes have bin Laden as a protagonist reporting from “hell” or busy plotting “Satan’s death”.
In Pakistan, the jokes are pegged on the army, which many people believe was clueless about the Al Qaeda leader’s whereabouts even as he hid in a compound located a stone’s throw from the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad.
One SMS doing the rounds over the past few days read: “No honking: the army is asleep”.
Another said: “Public Service Message from the Army: Stay alert. Don’t rely on us.” The joke
most frequently exchanged on SMS and on micro-blogging sites like Twitter was: “Pakistan radar system for sale: $99.99, buy one, get one free (Can’t detect US helicopters but can receive Star Plus.)” There has been a huge debate in Pakistan on whether the air force’s radars failed to detect the helicopters that carried US special forces to Abbottabad or were jammed.
Pakistan’s civil and military leadership have said they had no prior information of the daring pre-dawn raid. A few Pakistanis have contributed to “pakistanantijokes” trending on Twitter.
A Twitter user with the name ‘JernailKyaNahin’ has kept everyone in fits over the past week with his “Oye Pasha jokes”, a reference to ISI chief Lt Gen Ahmed Shuja Pasha, who has faced much flak for the failure to detect bin Laden’s presence as well as the US raid.
Others have directed their tweets at Obama: “Dear Obama, pliss take it easy; we don’t actually wish to be blamed for keeping our guest in poverty and not providing 4 his upkeep.”
Lalbrofessor, another Twitter user known for his humour directed at mullahs and right-wing elemenst, highlighted the fact that Indian tennis sensation Sania Mirza, married to Pakistani cricketer Shoaib Malik, was no longer Pakistan’s only high-profile foreign “bahu”.
“Diyar Sania, the honeymoon ij over. We have 3 new daughters-in-law...And Whoa!! 17 sons and daughters oph Pakistan!!”, he tweeted, referring to the capture of bin Laden’s three wives and several children after the US raid.
