Unaware Pak techie liveblogs op

A computer programmer,startled by a helicopter clattering above his quiet Pakistani town in the early hours of the morning Monday.

A computer programmer,startled by a helicopter clattering above his quiet Pakistani town in the early hours of the morning Monday,did what any social-media addict would do: he began sending messages to the social networking site Twitter.

With his tweets,33-year-old Sohaib Athar,became in his own words the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it.

Soon the sole helicopter multiplied into several and gunfire and explosions rocked the air above the town,and Athars tweets quickly garnered 14,000 followers as he unwittingly described the US operation to kill one of the worlds most wanted militants.

His first tweet was innocuous: Helicopter hovering above Abbottabad at 1AM is a rare event.

The noise alarmed Athar,who had moved to Abbottabad to get away from city life after his wife and child were badly injured in a car accident in the sprawling city of Lahore,according to his blog in July.

As the operation to kill Osama unfolded,Athar liveblogged what he was hearing in real time,describing windows rattling as bombs exploded. He questioned whose helicopters might be flying overhead.

Go away helicopter 8211; before I take out my giant swatter :-/, Athar wrote. He then reported a huge window-shaking bang and says it was too noisy to be a spy craft,or a very poor spy craft it was.

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Throughout the battle,he related the rumours swirling through town: it was a training accident. The aircraft might be a drone. The army was conducting door-to-door searches in the surrounding area.

Athar has since been added by thousands of Twitter followers in the hours after Osamas death was announced. I think the helicopter crash in Abbottabad,Pakistan and the President Obama breaking news address are connected, he tweeted.

Eight hours and about 35 tweets later,the confirmation came: Osama Bin Laden killed in Abbottabad,Pakistan, Athar reported. There goes the neighbourhood.

At 1.30 am,he said,Uh oh,now I8217;m the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it., he tweeted. and here come the mails from the mainstream media8230; sigh