‘Pakistan foils CIA’s plan to organise prison break for doctor who helped track Osama Bin Laden’
‘ISI foils CIA’s plan to organise prison break for doctor who helped track Osama Bin Laden’
‘CIA fails to organise jail break for Pakistani doctor who helped track Osama Bin Laden’
RAWALPINDI – Pakistani physician Shakil Afridi, who had helped the US authorities track down founder of al-Qaeda Osama bin Laden, has been found to be fit after medical examination.
A team of doctors took blood and urine samples of Dr Afridi in addition to his pulse, height and weight and later declared him fit as every test was found to be clear, the Dawn reported on Monday.
Dr Afridi, who was convicted in the treason case and kept in the Peshawar jail, was airlifted by a helicopter from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa amid tight security and was taken to the Adiala jail on Friday, prompting speculation he is to be released.
He was accused of treason and locked up after running a fake vaccine programme which helped the CIA confirm the al-Qaeda leader’s presence in the city of Abbottabad. The samples paved the way for a US Navy Seal raid in Abbottabad in May 2011 which killed ‘the September 11 mastermind’.
Afridi was sentenced to 23 years in jail for financing terrorism. That conviction was overturned in 2013, but he is still serving time for other terrorism-related convictions, his lawyer said. He also faced a murder trial related to the death of a patient more than a decade ago.
However, it is not known whether Dr Afridi will be kept in the Adiala jail or shifted to some other place.
The development comes in the wake of reports that Afridi was placed in another jail because of a planned prison break by Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
“The CIA planned to pull Dr. Shakil Afridi from the Peshawar prison, trying to organize a prison break, but the attempt was disrupted by [Pakistan’s] ISI [Inter-Services Intelligence.] A local informant who also worked for the CIA handed over information about this [CIA’s plan], and was aware of the plan. ISI became aware that [CIA] was also interested in the plan of the prison itself,” the Sputnik said in a report.
The Russian news agency quoted a source familiar to the situation as saying that Washington has once again offered Islamabad to exchange Shakil Afridi for Pakistani scientist Aafia Siddiqui who is serving jail term in the United States.
“Special services protect the informants who had been disclosed in order to preserve the confidence of other secret agents and informants working with them, especially in foreign countries. Because of this, the CIA has repeatedly asked for (extradition) of Afridi. This was one of the main demands on the list of requirements for Pakistan by President Trump,” the agency reported quoting another source.
The issue of Afridi’s release is one of the major obstacles to the improvement of the ties between the US and Pakistan.
Pakistanis believe that Dr Siddiqui is a patriot and a hero while Americans think the same about Dr Afridi.
On November 15, 2012, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Dr Siddiqui’s conviction and the 86-year-prison sentence for attempted murder and assault of US personnel, which effectively condemns her to die in a federal penal facility. To make matters worse, her sister Dr Fouzia Siddiqui maintain ‘The Gray Lady of Begram’ has been subjected to continued abuse in the federal prison system and has now been diagnosed with cancer.
On the other hand, soon after the death of bin Laden in May 2011, US media reported that Afridi had contributed to the success of the CIA operation by collecting DNA samples of bin Laden’s family by order of the intelligence agency. Then-CIA Director Leon Panetta and then-US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had confirmed the doctor’s role in eliminating the Al-Qaeda chief, after which Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities.
There are, however, no other immediate indications of his being freed.
Just last year, Pakistan’s then-law minister said the country would not release Dr Afridi under international pressure.
Zahid Hamid said: “Afridi worked against the law and our national interest, and the Pakistan government has repeatedly been telling the United States that under our law he committed a crime and was facing the law.”
