Bin Laden family 'must stay in Pakistan'

6 July 2011 Last updated at 10:48 GMT Bin Laden was top of the US "most wanted" list A Pakistani commission investigating the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden has said the government should not allow his family to leave the country.

Three of Bin Laden's wives and several children were detained after the 2 May raid on a compound near Islamabad.

The commission is investigating how the al-Qaeda leader hid in the Abbottabad compound for nearly five years. It held its first meeting on Tuesday.

It is not clear whether the authorities will heed the commission's demand.

Bin Laden, 54, orchestrated the 9/11 attacks on New York and Washington in which nearly 3,000 people died.

He evaded the forces of the US and its allies for almost a decade, despite a $25m (?15m) bounty on his head.

Infuriated

The family are said to have provided vital information about the al-Qaeda leader's activities and are among the main witnesses of the covert US operation that killed him.

Officials say that Bin Laden's presence for so long in Abbottabad was an embarrassment

The BBC's Shahzeb Jillani says that their testimony is considered crucial for the commission's efforts to investigate Bin Laden's presence in Pakistan and the circumstances surrounding the US raid.

The commission, headed by a senior judge of the Supreme Court, has ordered the interior ministry and the main intelligence agency, the ISI, to make sure that Bin Laden's family does not leave the country without its permission.

Our correspondent says that the US raid infuriated many Pakistanis and prompted suspicions that the al-Qaeda leader could not have been hiding in Abbottabad for nearly five years without the knowledge of the country's armed forces.

Pakistani officials have since called it one of their biggest intelligence failures.

Many in Pakistan are now hoping that the commission - whose meetings are not open to the public - will come up with some real answers.

A statement issued by the commission promised a thorough investigation and said it would summon senior civilian and military leaders to attend proceedings if necessary.

"Their identity will be kept confidential and they will also be legally protected," Associated Press quoted the statement as saying.

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Roadside bomb kills Afghan family

2 July 2011 Last updated at 09:00 GMT US troops overseeing reconstruction work in Zabul province, and on the look-out for Taliban, close to the Pakistan border At least 11 members of a family have been killed by a roadside bomb in the southern Afghan province of Zabul.

The family, including women and children, were thought to be refugees returning home from Pakistan.

They were driving their van through Shamulzayi district when the blast occurred. They are thought to have been heading for Ghazni province.

Roadside bombs are a weapon commonly used by the Taliban in their war against western forces.

Earlier this week, 20 Afghan civilians were killed when the bus they were in hit a roadside bomb in Nimroz province in southwest Afghanistan.

Elsewhere about 500 demonstrators chanting "Death to the Pakistan military!" and "Long live Afghanistan!" protested in Kabul against rocket attacks along the border with Pakistan.

At least 36 civilians are estimated to have died in the attacks in recent weeks.

Pakistan has denied that it fired the rockets into Afghanistan.

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