Image of bin Laden fake: Pakistani TV

This combination of two images shows a widely distributed image on the Internet yesterday of what Pakistani television described as an unconfirmed image of Osama bin Laden’s bloodied face after the United States said he had been killed, and one (at right) which is a horizontally inverted undated archive picture of the Al Qaeda leader

Pakistani television stations on Monday withdrew an image broadcast of the purported body of Osama bin Laden after his killing not far from Islamabad overnight, saying the picture was a fake. Several private channels showed what they called an “unverified” picture of bin Laden’s bloodied face after the United States said he had been killed. “It was a fake picture, it was on the Internet in 2009,” Rana Jawad, Islamabad bureau chief of Geo television, said. “When we checked we found it was fake and we pulled it out,” he said. Pakistani channels earlier showed the image of a face sporting a bushy and black beard with less of the white or grey hair detected in the most recent video footage of bin Laden when he was alive.