Saudi Arabia:refuses to accept Osama’s family
Saudi Arabia:refuses to accept Osama’s family
Saudi Arabia:refuses to accept Osama’s family By Tariq Sial – May 20, 2011 0 959 Facebook Twitter Pinterest WhatsApp ReddIt Telegram
Saudi Arabia has flatly refused to accept the three widows and nine children of Osama Bin Laden, who are currently in protective custody in Islamabad, The Express Tribune has learnt.
Bin Laden’s family was detained by Pakistani authorities for questioning after the al Qaeda godfather was killed in the May 2 top-secret operation by the US special forces in Abbottabad.
Interior Minister Rehman Malik, during his recent visit to Riyadh, had formally requested the Saudi authorities to accept Bin Laden’s family, a highly-placed source said. The Saudis said that Bin Laden had been stripped of Saudi citizenship more than 15 years ago.
The Pakistani request came after the Yemeni government refused to accept Amal Abdulfattah, one of the three widows of Bin Laden and her five children – as its citizens.
Bin Laden was stripped of his Saudi citizenship in 1994 after he criticised the royal family’s reliance on US troops to protect it after the Iraqi invasion of neighbouring Kuwait.
In a related development, Pakistani investigators have established links between Monday’s killing of a Saudi diplomat in Karachi with the kingdom’s refusal to accept Bin Laden’s family, officials told The Express Tribune.
“The Saudi diplomat’s murder was a mark of protest by al Qaeda against the Saudi’s indifferent attitude towards Bin laden’s family who have been subjected to interrogation by the United States
