Nazia Nazar
The Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track and kill Osama bin Laden has been moved by authorities from Peshawar prison to an unknown safer location. Shakil Afridi has been in a prison in Peshawar for almost eight years after his fake vaccination program helped US agents track and kill the Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. AFP quoting intelligence officials stated that Afridi was moved by intelligence officials to the safer place late Thursday for security reasons. According to another report, “ISI was tipped in December 2017 about the plan and reconnaissance of the premises by a source, a local informant. The plan to escape was scuttled by the ISI… Dr. Shakeel Afridi was shifted to some unknown safe location.” Afridi was jailed for 33 years in May 2012 after he was convicted of ties to militants, a charge he always denied.
US President Donald Trump had vowed during his election campaign that he would order Pakistan to free Afridi, as if Pakistan was a colony of the US.“I’m sure they would let him out because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan,” Trump told Fox News at that time. 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 terrorist, after which Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities. The fact remains that United States’ operation in Pakistan had resulted in a deterioration of bilateral ties; it rather led to strained relations.
Dr. Shakil Afiridi was convicted on charges of treason for having accepted to work as a secret agent of CIA and for conducting an unauthorized fake polio vaccination campaign with a view to collecting DNA sample in a house in Abbottabad where CIA suspected Osama bin Laden (OBL) was living. US policy makers resorted to coercive diplomacy against Pakistan, and stepped up psychological campaign and hurled threats of reducing or stoppage of aid to Pakistan. Dr. Afridi’s case had become a test case, as his conviction had sent the message to agents of aliens and palmed off media men loud and clear that they will be in the dock if they do not stop their anti-Pakistan activities. Immediately after the court sentenced Dr. Shakil Afridi, US State Department spokesperson Victoria Nuland said that there was no basis for Dr. Afridi to be incarcerated.
US Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher had called it a “decisive proof that Pakistan sees itself as being at war with the US”. Two key US senators Carl Levin and John McCain in a joint statement had said that Afridi’s sentence was “shocking and outrageous”, urging Pakistan to pardon Dr. Afridi along with the warning that the decision could put US assistance to Pakistan at risk. On the other hand, a US Senate Panel had voted unanimously to cut aid to Pakistan by $ 33 million, or one million dollar for every year Dr. Shakil Afridi spends in prison. Then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vowed to continue to press the case of Dr. Shakil Afridi with Islamabad, describing Pakistan’s jailing of Afridi for 33 years for helping the CIA find OBL, “unjust and unwarranted”. However, his jail term was reduced to 23 years.
As reported in the press, the US had influenced selected media men, intellectuals and writers to seek support for its point of view. In this regard, anchorperson Dr. Danish, in his TV Talk Show ‘Swal Yeh Hey” telecast on ARY News on 27th May 2012, had revealed that US pumped in Rs.500 million for writers and media anchors for rejecting court verdict sentencing Dr Afridi. In fact, the CIA had breached the early agreement by concealing information from the ISI and tasking a Pakistani government official for a job, which they knew was illegal. There was no reason for the CIA to hide information about Osama bin Laden from the ISI, because Pakistan had arrested scores of Al Qaeda leaders and operatives who were handed over to the US. There was not a single instance of shared information being leaked and the target forewarned.
The US administration was not justified in seeking Dr. Shakil Afridi’s release, because it would never like any US citizen to work for a foreign intelligence agency either. America has more often than not displayed double standards. Take the case of Jonathan Pollard, an American citizen, who worked as an American civilian intelligence analyst before being convicted of spying for Israel. He received a life sentence in 1987 and still languishes in jail. In June 1984, Pollard started passing classified information to Sella and received in exchange $10,000 cash and a very expensive diamond and sapphire ring, which Pollard later presented to his girlfriend Anne while proposing her for marriage. Judge Aubrey Robinson, Jr., had awarded a life sentence after hearing a “damage-assessment memorandum” from the Secretary of Defense. If America can award life sentence to its traitors, why Pakistan cannot hand out similar sentence to its traitors?
