Pakistan is planning to build a $30 million (Rs 160 crore) amusement park with a zoo and adventure sports facilities in the town where Osama bin Laden was killed by US special forces, officials said Monday. The 50-acre riverside development on the edge of Abbottabad, where US Navy SEALs shot the Al-Qaeda leader dead on May 2, 2011, will include restaurants, a heritage centre and artificial waterfalls. <img alt="" src="http://images.mid-day.com/2013/feb/0502osama.jpg" style="width: 500px; height: 337px;" /> Torn down: Officials demolished the apartment in which al-Qaeda leader Osama bin laden and his wives hid in Pakistan fearing that the home would become a shrine for his followers. File Pics The government of northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province hopes the project, announced as a public-private partnership, will boost tourism but denied it was intended to improve the town&rsquo;s image after the humiliation of the bin Laden raid. &ldquo;The amusement city will be built on 50 acres in the first phase but later will be extended to 500 acres,&rdquo; said Syed Aqil Shah, the provincial minister for tourism and sports. &ldquo;It will have a heritage park, wildlife zoo, food street, adventure and paragliding clubs, waterfalls and jogging tracks.&rdquo; Work is due to begin in late February or early March, he said, and will take eight years to complete. Funds worth $30 million have been allocated, he said. Abbottabad, a quiet, leafy town nestling in the foothills of the Himalayas around 50 kilometres (30 miles) north of Islamabad, has long been a popular spot for well-heeled families from the capital to spend weekends away. The town also houses Pakistan&rsquo;s elite military academy and the discovery of the world&rsquo;s most wanted man on its doorstep prompted allegations of incompetence or complicity between the armed forces and the 9/11 mastermind. But Shah insisted the new development, to be named, was simply about promoting tourism, not polishing the town&rsquo;s tarnished image. &ldquo;This project has nothing to do with Osama bin Laden,&rdquo; he said adding, &ldquo;We are working to promote tourism and amusement facilities in the whole province and this project is one of those facilities.&rdquo; The authorities demolished the compound where bin Laden hid with his wives and children last February, fearing it could become a shrine to al-Qaeda followers. u00a0 Osama movie finds no takers in Pakistan Pakistani movie distributors and television stations are boycotting Kathryn Bigelow&rsquo;s Zero Dark Thirty, an Oscar-nominated film about the hunt for Osama bin Laden and popular US dramas to avoid offending sensibilities or sparking a violent backlash. Cinemas are steering clear of a film they say could make people feel humiliated. We have not and neither has anyone else bought Zero Dark Thirty,&rdquo; said Mohsin Yaseen, a representative for film distribution company Cinepax. He described the film as &lsquo;pro-American&rsquo;, despite controversy in the US over its depictions of so-called enhanced interrogation techniques, widely seen as torture.

In a bid to improve the reputation of Abbottabad    ufffdthe town where the al-Qaeda leader was found hiding    ufffd Pakistani officials are planning to build a park worth Rs 160 crore

Pakistan plans to build amusement park in Osama town

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Pakistan plans to build amusement park in Osama town

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