Slain al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden's family members were deported by Pakistan in the early hours of Friday — almost a year after they were taken into custody following the U.S. raid on his compound in Abbottabad on May 2.
All 14 members of his family — including his three widows, children and grand-children — were flown out of the country in a special aircraft that had come from Saudi Arabia to fetch them. They were whisked away from the bungalow that the Pakistani government had bought for them in a posh locality of Islamabad in the dead of the night in a bus that was heavily curtained.
Though the authorities tried to keep the movement quite, the regulation of traffic in the area and activity around the house drew media attention.
In view of all the cameras present, heavy sheets were held around the bus that was driven right up to their front door so that the women could get into the vehicle without being photographed.
From the house — which doubled as a jail when all the adults in the family were arrested for six weeks for illegally entering the country — the family was driven straight to the airport with a cavalcade of media vehicles in hot chase. However, even at the airport special arrangements had been made to keep the family out of media glare.
Published - April 27, 2012 11:17 am IST
