US Edition 
Osama bin Laden killed: conspiracy theories proliferate in wake of raid
The announcement that Osama bin Laden had been killed in a daring US special forces raid and then swiftly buried at sea – with nothing but reassurance from the US government that his body had been positively identified as proof – has led to a slew of conspiracy theories.
As well as demands from Americans and Pakistanis for the US government to release photographs that show bin Laden deceased, several of Facebook groups have sprung up with titles such as "Osama bin Laden NOT DEAD". Blogs have also been humming with suggestions that the US government faked the raid and internet forums have lit up with debate over the "death hoax".
Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan, whose son was killed in Iraq in 2004, wrote on Facebook: "I am sorry, but if you believe the newest death of OBL, you're stupid. Just think to yourself - they paraded Saddam's dead sons around to prove they were dead - why do you suppose they hastily buried this version of OBL at sea?"
The theory has had an impact. Stella Olender, who lost her daughter Christine in the September 11 attacks, said she was not sure that bin Laden was really dead.
"To me, that seems strange, that they disposed of it and no one [besides] whoever was right there knows what happened, if it's true or false, you know?" she said.
Others believe that bin Laden has been dead for years and some claimed that the killing was simply an elaborate part of Barack Obama's re-election plan.
Writing on Tea Party Nation website, one conspiracy theorist said: "Don't you think Obama needs something to assure his re-election?"
The "campaign" theory was given extra credence by the fact that the US president's announcement of bin Laden's death cut into a broadcast of Donald Trump's reality show Celebrity Apprentice. Mr Obama has sparred with the billionaire in recent weeks over Mr Trumps unfounded claims that the president was not born on American soil.
Meanwhile, Alex Jones, a US radio host, claimed that the US government had concocted the killing to justify a security crackdown.
But conspiracy theories were not confined to the US.
In the towns around Abbottabad, the news that the world's most wanted man had been living nearby for almost six years was met with cynicism.
Bashir Qureshi, 61, who lives just a bean field away from where bin Laden was shot and whose windows were blown out in the raid, was dismissive.
"Nobody believes it. We've never seen any Arabs around here," he said laughing. "They (the US) said they had thrown his body to the sea! This is wrong, he was not here."
Shakil Ahmed, who works for a pharmaceutical company, said he believed that the US desire to pull 130,000 international troops out of Afghanistan and wrap up a 10-year war against the Taliban was a motive for peddling lies.
"The US wants to quit Afghanistan. They are saying Osama is dead so they can have an excuse. They have tried to defame the Pakistani army by cooking up this story," he said.
"If he is killed, why don't they show his body?"
It was the lack of evidence presented by the Americans straight after the killing that perhaps did most to raise suspicions.
An American official said US forces administered Muslim religious rites for bin Laden on an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, before the body was eased overboard for a watery burial in a weighted bag.
They insist that DNA had been used to prove the body was bin Laden's and that he had been identified by one of his wives. However, the Obama administration has refused so far to release photographic evidence that bin Laden is dead.
Their argument has not been helped by a fake photograph purporting to show a deceased bin Laden, which did the rounds on the internet on Monday.