Pakistan deports Osama's family to Saudi Arabia
Pakistan today deported 14 members of Osama bin Laden's
family, including his three widows, to Saudi Arabia, days before the
first anniversary of the death of the al-Qaeda chief.
The
family was taken amidst tight security at around midnight to Chaklala
military airbase in Rawalpindi, where a special Saudi aircraft was
standing by to fly out the women and children.
Security agencies sent a mini bus to the house in Sector G-6 of
Islamabad where the family was being held to transport them to the
airport. The widows initially refused to enter the bus in the presence
of large number of journalists who had gathered at the house and
officials covered its windows with plastic sheets.
TV news channels beamed footage of two smiling women seated at the front
of the bus as it drove away from the house. Two of the widows are Saudi
nationals while the third, Amal Abdulfattah, is a Yemeni national.
The Interior Ministry, which was responsible for the deportation of the
family, said in a statement that authorities had "passed orders for the
deportation of 14 members of (bin Laden's) family in pursuance of the
court orders".
"The family was kept safe and sound in a guesthouse... They have been
deported to the country of their choice, Saudi Arabia", the statement
said.After US special forces killed bin Laden during a raid in the
garrison town of Abbottabad on May 2 last year, his widows and children
were detained by Pakistani intelligence agencies. They were handed over
to the Interior Ministry earlier this year.
A civil court recently sentenced the widows and two grown-up daughters
to 45 days in prison for entering and living in Pakistan illegally. The
judge ordered their deportation on completion of the prison term, which
began on March 3 when the family was formally arrested.
The deportation ended speculation about the fate of the widows and
children of the slain al-Qaeda chief. Pakistani security agencies have
claimed they were unaware of bin Laden's presence in Pakistan and
rejected suggestions that members of the military establishment were
involved in sheltering him