February 25, 2012 -- Updated 1903 GMT (0303 HKT) Osama Bin Laden used this site as a hideout until he was killed in a raid by U.S. forces in May 2011. NEW: Official says demolition will demoralize Bin Laden sympathizers "The action was taken to keep the compound from ever becoming a shrine for Bin Laden's followers," a Pakistani military official told CNN. It's a message that Pakistan doesn't want to keep anything connected with this terrorist. Destroying the compound would "demoralize senior militant leaders," said the military official, who asked not to be named because he is not authorized to speak to the media about the demolition. "The demolition of this compound is the demolition of anything that symbolized" bin Laden, the official said. CNN's Reza Sayah and journalists Nasir Habib, Zubair Ayoub and Tahir Shah contributed to this report.