Advertisement

We need your help now

Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.

You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.

If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.

Locals residents and journalists outside the house were bin Laden was killed by US forces last weekend. AP Photo/Aqeel Ahmed
Bin Laden

Pakistan still holding Osama bin Laden's wives and children

Three of Bin Laden’s wives and eight of his children are in the custody of Pakistani authorities, following the US raid which killed the al-Qaeda leader.

AS US INVESTIGATORS comb through a treasure trove of computer data and documents seized from Osama bin Laden’s home, Pakistani officials face a more domestic task: What to do with three of the slain terrorist leader’s wives and eight of his children.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said today that government officials were still holding the wives and children for questioning and that so far, no country had sought their extradition.

Pakistan gained custody of bin Laden’s family members on Monday after a covert US operation killed the al-Qaeda chief at his hideout in the northwestern city of Abbottabad.

Among them was bin Laden’s Yemeni-born wife, Amal Ahmed Abdullfattah.

She has told Pakistani investigators that she moved to the home in 2006 and never left the compound.

Pakistan foreign ministry spokeswoman Tahmina Janjua said that neither Yemen or any other country had asked for the extradition of bin Laden’s relatives. Pakistani officials, who have not disclosed where the relatives are being held, have said that they will be returned to their countries of origin.

The ages of the children have not been disclosed.

Bin Laden led a life on the run, yet he kept his family close.

One of his sons, Khalid, was killed during the raid. Abdullfattah, his youngest wife, was shot in the leg and was initially taken to a military hospital, a Pakistani military official has said. One of his daughters watched her father being slain, he said.

Abdullfattah told interrogators that she had been staying in bin Laden’s hideout since 2006 and never left the upper floors of the large, sparsely furnished building, said a Pakistani intelligence official who spoke on condition of anonymity in line with the agency’s policy.

CIA officers have not been given access to the women or children in custody, the official said. Their accounts could help shed light on the US military operation that killed the al-Qaeda leader and on how he was able to avoid capture for nearly 10 years.

- AP

Watch: New videos of Osama bin Laden show him watching himself on television >

Obama hails Navy SEALs as it emerges bin Laden could have been caught sooner >