Local residents try to look past the gates into the compound where al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was killed in Abbottabad May 4, 2011.
The paper trail leading to whoever helped Osama bin Laden during his years of seclusion includes sheaves of land-registry documents filed with local authorities in Abbottabad, now kept secret by order from Islamabad.
Government officials have been instructed to avoid discussing ownership of the mysterious compound where the terrorist leader apparently lived for five or six years, but one local administrator confirmed that the property was listed under the names of two brothers from the rugged border province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
Documents identify the brothers as Arshad Khan and Bashir Khan, both the sons of Naqab Khan, the administrator said. The brothers said they were originally from the village of Khattak Korona in Charsadda district, north of the bustling frontier city of Peshawar where Mr. bin Laden started his career as a jihadi in the 1980s.
Those names sound roughly similar to the way neighbours in Bilal Town, a suburb of Abbottabad, referred to the reclusive men who lived next door.
Pakistani sources have told journalists the land-registry documents are worthless because somebody obtained them with a faked identity card. If the Khan brothers did invent their names, however, such forgery would have required elaborate effort: building contractors in Abbottabad said the process of purchasing land, obtaining permits, and hooking up basic utilities, requires months, or even years, of approvals.
It's even harder to get the necessary papers in a cantonment area such as Bilal Town, where homes are built on military lands.
"The process gets more strict when it comes to the military," said Saqib Jadoon, 46, co-owner of Dawn Builders, one of the biggest construction firms in Abbottabad. His company built at least 25 homes in Bilal Town, though none so large as the hulking high-security compound where Mr. bin Laden lived.
Mr. Jadoon estimated that an average project would require the purchaser to prove his identity at least seven times, usually with a Pakistani national identity card. Pakistan's National Database & Registration Authority, which administers the card program, says on its website that any citizen can confirm the validity of an identity card by contacting the authority.
In practice, Mr. Jadoon said that buyers and sellers don't usually investigate each other when making real-estate deals in Abbottabad.
"If his photo looks right on the card, okay," Mr. Jadoon said. "We don't research his background."
It's not clear whether such a relaxed approach also applied to the cantonment board, usually chaired by an active-duty colonel. The board meets once a month and approves all details of planned construction on military lands.
"When I built my house, that paperwork took two or three months and they were very careful about the blueprint," said Israr Sahad, 28, who lives in an adjacent neighbourhood. "When you are finished building, they come and visit you to make sure everything is exactly right."
Even after construction, Mr. Sahad said details such as electricity and gas lines can require further months of paperwork and proof of identity, tax status and land ownership.
The 36,000-square-foot property where the bin Laden family lived was probably worth only $80,000 when first purchased about eight years ago as an empty field, Mr. Jadoon said, but would now fetch about $500,000.
A labourer working the rows of vegetables outside the compound walls leaned on his shovel and smiled broadly when asked about the Khan brothers.
"They were polite," said Mohammed Qasim, 20. "They seemed like rich men, but they had no fancy clothes, no expensive watches or cellphones."
Mohammed Abid, 12, idly swatting at weeds with a badminton racket, seemed less sure about his neighbours. "We often heard children crying inside," Mr. Abid said. "They should have allowed them outside for games, but we never met them."