No country has approached Pakistan for safe return of Osama bin Laden's wives and eight of his children who are currently in custody of Pakistani authorities, Foreign Office said on Sunday. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani will take parliament into confidence on Monday about the raid and revelations made by bin Laden's family so far.
The family of Al Qaeda's leader was taken in custody after the US operation on May 2. The Foreign Office categorically said that three of Osama's wives and eight of his children have been in custody for nearly a week, but no country had come forward and asked for their return.
The ministry said that the bin Laden family was in safe hands and was being looked after in accordance with law. Some of them needing medical care are under treatment. As per policy, they would be handed over to their countries of origin.
It is learnt that CIA has not been allowing access to the family. On the other hand, US officials amended their initial version of events to say that a woman, who was killed during the attack on the compound, was not Osama's wife, and was not used as a human shield.
A woman, thought to be his wife, was injured when she confronted US forces and was treated at Combined Military Hospital (CMH), Abbottabad. She is from Yemen. Osama's son Khalid, in his early 20s, was also killed. He is believed to have been with his father in Afghanistan during the 2001 US invasion.
It also transpired that a 12 or 13 years old girl told Pakistan's officials that she was Osama's daughter, and had seen her father being shot dead. US forces, and two women and eight or nine children were left behind in the compound as one of their helicopters had crashed and they had no space on their remaining aircraft to take them.
Defence experts claimed that authorities could get more information on the operation and help reveal how Osama survived nearly 10 years after September 11, 2001.
Comments
Comments are closed for this article.