Osama bin Laden’s (OBL’s) family’s fate has been settled by a court on Monday. His three widows and two daughters have been indicted for illegally staying in Pakistan and impersonation. The women have been sentenced to 45 days detention, which starts from March 1when they were formally arrested. The court imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on the five women and has directed the government to deport them to their respective countries — Saudi Arabia and Yemen — at the earliest after completion of their sentence. The speedy conviction in this case seems an outcome of the completion of the intelligence agencies’ probe, which could not offer much about their direct involvement in OBL’s deadly endeavours. However, the revelations made by his youngest wife, Amal al Sadeh, that OBL had been living in Pakistan for nine years has further highlighted the inefficiency of our intelligence agencies that ‘surprisingly’ remained oblivious of his presence during all these years. OBL’s family’s presence had become a burden and also potentially posed a serious security threat. It seems both wise and humane to administer minimum detention and deportation. The manner in which this matter has been wound up, it seems that all obstacles and suspicions have been removed. The US seems to be satisfied that the allegations surrounding OBL’s residing peacefully in Pakistan do not point to any Pakistani ‘smoking gun’. The statement of US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta that no evidence of the Pakistani authorities’ direct connection with OBL has been found in the documents recovered from OBL’s compound, reflects the same perception. The repatriation of OBL’s wives would also help meet one of the demands of the al Qaeda militants who have abducted a Swiss teacher in Yemen, demanding OBL’s widows be freed in exchange for the Swiss captive. *