Pakistan could let US interrogate Bin Laden's widows

After strongly resisting the U.S. demand to give access to Osama Bin Laden's widows, Pakistan has probably veered round to yielding to the demand, Reuters has reported.

The news agency quoted a U.S. official familiar with the matter as saying that Islamabad appears to be ready to let U.S. interrogators question the wives of the Al-Qaeda leader killed in Abottabad last week.

The Pakistanis now appear willing to grant access. Hopefully they'll carry through on the signals they're sending, the agency quoted the official as saying.

Close on the heels of the killing of the 9/11 mastermind deep inside Pakistan, a new diplomatic fight brewed between the two countries over the U.S. request to hand over the wives of Bin Laden captured from the compound where he was killed.

Pakistan had even turned down the American demand to let interrogates visit Amal Al-Sadah, one of Bin Laden's wives who was seen alongside him in the room stormed by the navy Seals. Pakistan denied US the permission to visit her in a military hospital in Rawalpindi where she was being treated for a gunshot wound on the leg.

Pakistan had said Al-Sadah would be sent back to Yemen, from where she hails, rather than let the U.S. have access to her. The Pakistani establishment could have been wary that the U.S. would get key details about Pakistan's role in keeping Laden out of reach for the U.S. for 10 years.

However the U.S. kept pressure high on Pakistan as it tried to root out the Al-Qaeda network in the region. The U.S. intelligence hopes to garner important evidence about the rump of the hated terror network by questioning people who lived with Bin Laden in Abottabad.