Pakistan files cases against Osama's family

Pakistan’s Interior Minister Rehman Malik said Friday cases have been registered against family members of Osama bin Laden for entering in Pakistan illegally. Three widows of the al-Qaeda chief and their children have been in the custody of the Pakistani security agencies since the the American military killed Osama bin Laden in Abbotabad in May 2011. A widow of Osama had told the investigators that her slain husband had lived for nearly five years in Abbotabad. The Interior Minister told the reporters in Islamabad that the al-Qaeda chief and his family members had entered Pakistan illegally. He said that the family members were produced in a court and they had been on judicial remand. He did not say when they had been produced in the court. Malik said that Osama’s family has been shifted to a house in Islamabad three days ago and the house has been declared a sub-jail, adding that bin Laden’s children had been exempted from legal action. He said that all the facilities were being provided to Osama’s children. He dispelled the reports that he had told the Osama inquiry Commission that the government was aware of Laden’s presence in its territory. Malik said that bin Laden’s family would be allowed to leave the country after fulfilling the legal requirements. A newspaper reported on Tuesday that Pakistan has allowed the family of Osama bin Laden to leave the country. The Yemeni brother-in-law of the slain al-Qaida chief has arrived in Pakistan to shift his two Yemeni widows, according to the report. The Commission investigating the US raid and presence of the al-Qaeda chief in Pakistan has allowed the Osama family members to leave Pakistan as they were no more required for questioning, according to local media. The commission members had interviewed the widows of Osama as part of the investigation. The US commandoes had handed over all the family members of Osama bin Laden to Pak officials after the 40-minute raid on Osama's compound in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011. The Pakistani security forces razed to ground the compound of Osama bin Laden late last month as it had been emerging as a security concern in view of the daily visits of hundreds of people to the compound, which is located just two kilometers from Pakistan's major military academy.