Updated on Dec 14, 2012, 09:42 IST

Sohaib Athar: The IT Consultant who Unknowingly Live-tweeted the Raid on Bin Laden

altIf you were on Twitter during the wee hours of May 2, you would have noticed that the story of Osama Bin Laden's killing unfolded dramatically in the form of tweets much before the US president Barack Obama even announced his press conference.

It happened because one of the tweeples live-tweeted the entire raid as it happened, oblivious of the fact that he was telling the world how the most dreaded terrorist were to be hunted down, and eventually, shot dead.

Live-blogging the Raid

A tweeter named Sohaib Akhtar (@ReallyVirtual), who describes himself as “an IT consultant taking a break from the rat-race by hiding in the mountains with his laptops” unwittingly covered the raid that killed Bin Laden. At about 1 a.m. local time Akhtar tweeted that a helicopter was flying above Abbottabad and he described it as a “rare event”.

“Go away helicopter - before I take out my giant swatter :-/” he tweeted in jest. He then reported a “huge window-shaking bang” and apprehended that was a signal of something nasty

According to his tweets, he moved to Abbottabad because it was a part of his “being safe” strategy.

Throughout the raid Athar was drawing information from friends in the nearby areas who happened to be online. During the raid, he also speculated that he was barely two or three kilometers away from where the shooting took place. Once the news of Bin Laden's death broke, Athar realised what he had been doing. "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who live-blogged the Osama raid without knowing it.," he tweeted. "and here come the mails from the mainstream media... *sigh*"

His tweets during and after the raid smack of frustration. "I guess Abbottabad is going to get as crowded as the Lahore that I left behind for some peace and quiet. *sigh*". Even after being bombarded by messages/calls from the world media Athar remains humble. “I am JUST a tweeter, awake at the time of the crash. Not many twitter users in Abbottabad, these guys are more into facebook . That's all.”

He also posted an image of Abbottabad streets to show how the entire area was dramatically shut down after the raid.

Click here to see what Athar tweeted.

Twitter vs Mainstream Media

President Obama still hadn't confirmed the news of Bin Laden's death and the informed tweeters were speculating online about the reason for a hastily-organised White House press conference. This only shows the growing prominence of social media and citizen journalism. Some analysts in the US are saying that the micro-blogging site just had its “CNN moment”. They compared the event to the first Gulf War, where millions suddenly woke up to the fact that cable news was a place to see war-events unfold realtime.

In the five years since Twitter first appeared on the web, it has played a revolutionary role in the reporting of world events. In 2009, when a US Airways plane made an emergency landing on New York's Hudson river, the world first got a glimpse of Twitter's potential. Ferry passenger Janis Krums tweeted a picture of the stricken aircraft just moments after it came down. Anti-government protesters in the Middle East made extensive use of Twitter during their protests. Recently, there was the news of two men hiring a taxi from New York to Los Angeles and live-tweeting their entire six-day long trip for which they paid $5000 to the cabbie.

Even journos have started making extensive use of Twitter during their reporting assignments. (MensXP.com)

Also read: Top 5 Online and Offline Twitter Applications
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