Dr Shakil Afridi who helped CIA catch bin Laden likely to be freed next month

PESHAWAR - Dr Shakil Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped American forces hunt down al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad compound, is likely to be released from jail next month.

Afridi was handed a total of 33 years jail term on four different charges after he ran a fake vaccine programme which assisted the US' Central Investigation Agency (CIA) to confirm the presence of Laden in the city. Subsequently, a US Navy Seal conducted raid inside Pakistan killing the alleged mastermind of 9/11 attacks.

Counsel for the detained doctor, Qamar Nadeem Advocate, talking to BBC Urdu his client most probably would be released next month as he received several remissions in sentence.

Nadeem said that Afridi was awarded 30 years jail term on three charges and three years in another charger. Later, the doctor filed an appeal and his sentence was reduced by ten years.

The lawyer added that if his client’s total sentence and remissions were taken into consideration, then his jail terms would be complete next month.

According to the BBC report, Afridi was transferred from a Peshawar prison to  Adiala Jail of Rawalpindi on Friday under strict security. Some sources claimed that he was shifted through an helicopter, while there is no official statement in this regard.

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.

It is more likely that Dr Afridi might move to the United States where he will stay permanently.

The source also said that the issue of Afridi’s release is one of the major obstacles to the improvement of the ties between the US and Pakistan.

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.