New Delhi: The US may now get a chance to question Osama bin Laden's wives. 'Bloomberg' reports that Pakistan has agreed to give US investigators access to the three wives who were with Osama in the compound during the raid.
But a specific timing of the access wasn't set. Pakistani authorities have said they found the three wives and nine children at the site.
In addition to Osama, three men and one of their wives were killed during the raid.
The decision followed verbal skirmishing between the two countries. Pakistani officials have said the US should have informed Pakistan of the operation in advance. US officials have questioned how much Pakistani authorities knew about bin Laden’s presence in their country.
Earlier on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said the US is in consultation with the Pakistani government at many levels about access to bin Laden's wives, and some of the other materials that may have been collected by the Pakistanis after the US commando team left.
"We will continue those conversations. We believe that it is very important to maintain the cooperative relationship with Pakistan precisely because it's in our national security interest to do so," he said.
In another news report, The New York Times said, CIA Director Leon Panetta would soon meet ISI Chief Lt Gen Ahmad Shuja Pasha "to discuss the way forward in the common fight against al-Qaeda."
On Sunday, Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, called Pakistani Army Chief Gen Ashfaq Parvez Kayani as part of the continued dialogue.
That's the highest level of contact between the two countries after US President Barack Obama called his Pakistani counterpart Asif Ali Zardari to inform him that Osama bin Laden has been killed in a covert US operation.
Both the Pentagon and the State Department confirmed on Monday that neither Defense Secretary Robert gates nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have made any telephone calls to the Pakistani leadership after the last week's incident of killing bin Laden.
(With additional information from PTI)
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