As news of the killing of Osama bin Laden in neighbouring Pakistan broke early that Monday morning, it sent most international organisations based in Kabul into alert mode. Afghanistan, after all, was the country that had sheltered the al-Qaeda chief and given him support during the time he launched his most spectacular acts of terrorism. The internationals were told either to stay at home or to restrict their movements. In the event, nothing happened.
By and large, Afghans stayed unmoved that day. 'I don't know what I feel,' said Ahmed, a young waiter at a glitzy Kabul restaurant frequented by internationals and well-heeled Afghans. 'What do you think about it? Is it good or bad?' His words were echoed by Hashim, a taxi driver. 'I don't know whether it is good or bad. Some say he was a Muslim leader and others say he was a terrorist.' In fact, apart from fewer vehicles ferrying internationals, there was little impact on the city. Kabul, a bustling busy city of over five million, remained busy and unconcerned, not even showing the immediate tensing of its sinews that anticipation of trouble often brings.
Afghans have stayed unmoved since. There was no change even after the Friday prayers that week, a moment that in the past has often been the turning point from peace to violent protests. Most Afghans, when asked, have offered a cerebral rather than emotional reaction to the death of the man responsible for setting in motion the 'war on terror' fought in their backyards. Afghans discussed the death, but processed it mostly in terms of what the consequences would be for them – a calculated response that was far removed from both the jubilation on the streets of the US and the angry protests on the streets of Pakistan.
In fact, this reaction was hardly surprising. Though most images of Osama are against the backdrop of Afghanistan's mountains, the al-Qaeda leader does not have either the symbolic potency or emotional resonance that he has had elsewhere. He is one among many actors and groups who have passed through the county in the past few decades, claiming to fight on behalf of Afghans and bringing nothing but misery. In 2010 alone, the ninth year of the Western intervention, 2777 civilians died as a result of the conflict, according to UN figures. Bin Laden might have been the touchstone for emotions in 2001, but since then he has been overtaken by events of greater urgency and figures of more immediate impact in shaping both lives and deaths in Afghanistan.