ISLAMABAD – Foreign Office on Thursday cleared the air over the reports that a deal between Pakistan and anyone else was underway over the matter of Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the US forces catch Osama bin Laden.
During his weekly press briefing, FO spokesperson Dr MOhammad Faisal stated that the Interior Ministry was handling the matter.
Earlier, reports rife in the media that Washington has approached Islamabad to exchange Dr Shakil Afridi for Pakistani scientist Dr Aafia Siddiqui, while Pakistan has refused the offer.
Recently, Afridi was transferred from a Peshawar prison to Adiala Jail of Rawalpindi on Friday under strict security. The Pakistani doctor also underwent a medical checkup in the jail and was declared completely fit. Security of the prison facility has been beefed up following his shifting.
https://en.dailypakistan.com.pk/pakistan/dr-shakil-afridi-who-helped-cia-catch-bin-laden-likely-to-be-freed-next-month/
Soon after the death of Osama bin Laden in May 2011, the 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 terrorist, after which Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities.
Dr Afridi was arrested from the Karkhano market area of Peshawar in 2012. Later this year, he was awarded the jail term by the political administration of Khyber Agency under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, the colonial-era laws that govern the tribal regions.
