Pakistan will soon repatriate Osama bin Laden’s widows and children to Saudi Arabia, an Arab newspaper Al-Hayat Arabic reported on Tuesday.
It is expected that the family will leave within the next two days by a special plane; however, the authorities in Pakistan have refrained from giving an exact date.
The report stated that Saudi Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Aziz Ibrahim al-Ghadeer said that he did not receive any official directive regarding the repatriation. But last month, CNN reported that Pakistan had contacted the governments of Saudi Arabia and Yemen for the repatriation of the three wives of Osama bin Laden.
US special forces entered deep inside Pakistani territory in helicopters on May 2 and conducted an operation at a compound in Abbottabad, later claiming to have killed al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
The Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) had taken custody of Bin Laden’s widows, two Saudis and one Yemeni, and around 10 of their children after the US operation and the judicial commission inquiring into the matter had barred authorities from handing them over to any other country without its permission.
Initial efforts to repatriate the women and children ran aground when the commission in July ordered them to remain in Pakistan until further notice, indicating that it wanted to question them in relation to its inquiries.
The Abbottabad commission investigating the raid lifted travel restrictions after recording their statements.
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This is funny. OBLs family is being deported to Saudi Arabia but a majority of the people dont believe that the whole OBL operation was a fake. Pakistani people have been fed so much lies by their leaders. Sad that there has been so much loss of life at the cost of gaining certain political and military mileage. Pakistan needs to lose its preoccupation of worrying about Kashmir and India or its standing in Afghanistan and concentrate on helping its own people.
@Cosmo: You mean he was a strategic asset created by the US to oust the Soviets in Afghanistan and then he went "rogue". Not only should Pakistan deport him but all foreigners who have gained access to the nation since the Soviet Afghanistan conflict when Pakistan was used as a front line state to defeat the Soviets and end the Cold War.
@Mirza: So "OBL was never in Pakistan", and this is all a conspiracy!, Here we go again! Lets see, the Pakistani government, the Army, the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, Ayman al-Zawahira, ETC ETC AND the US all say the OBL was killed in Abbotabad last May by US Helicopter assault team! So Mirza, please tell us how you KNOW the OBL was never in Pakistan!
Why are they not being charged for illegal entry in the country?
@Cosmo: Because now that the head of the household is regarded as "Person Non Gratia" they would have difficulty claiming Asylum, so one has to make a show of this situation !!! Why have they been detained for long, especially as they are women and children?? Have the saudis actually stated, that they will be welcome, as some are yemanis and the children well they may have been born in either Pakistan, Afghanistan or perhaps in Tora Bora !!! So what is their nationality and status???
They were saved from Gitmoi but you can look at it any - way how!!
But OBL was never in Pakistan let alone in a safe haven in an army base. Where did his harem come from? It must be a conspiracy to malign our brave army officers by the West. Pakistan has nothing to do with "any" of the terrorists. We are Islamic Republic of Pakistan and not a terroristan. Where is ISPR to condemn this false info?
But he was the strategic asset and the state guest, why cant his family live in pakistan?