Pakistan refuses to release Dr Afridi despite US pressure

Pakistan has turned down the US request to release Dr Shakil Afridi, a Pakistani physician accused of helping the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) track down al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden by arranging a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad.
Dr Afridi was taken into custody by Pakistani security agencies soon after bin Laden was killed in a covert raid by US special forces in Abbottabad on May 2. Afridi was charged for arranging a fake vaccination drive in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, where bin Laden was living in a large compound, to get a DNA sample in a syringe from one of the al Qaeda chief’s blood relatives so that it could be confirmed he was living in the compound.
A report by a British newspaper suggested a few days ago that US pressure to get Afridi released from the custody of Pakistani security agencies had worked to soften the stand of Islamabad on the contentious issue, and that the physician was likely to be set free.
The report quoted a Pakistani official as saying: “If it is confirmed that he (Afridi) did not deal with Americans and didn’t know he was working for the CIA, he didn’t break any laws. He also did not spy on Pakistan or violate the official secrets act. So there may be no reason to charge him if he was misled and did not know he was working indirectly for a foreign intelligence service.” However, a Pakistani diplomat said that Pakistan had now expressed its inability to the US to free Dr Afridi despite intense pressure from Washington. “In fact, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton also made a phone call to President Asif Ali Zardari a few days back and asked for the release of Dr Afridi, but she was told that it was not possible,” he said.
“One major reason that Dr Afridi couldn’t be set free is that he will have to appear before the Abbottabad Enquiry Commission as an important witness to whatever happened in Abbottabad that led to the May 2 military operation by US forces that killed bin Laden,” he added.
A Pakistani security official, who asked not to be named, neither confirmed nor denied that Islamabad had rejected the US demand to release Dr Afridi, but said it was most likely that the Pakistani physician would be presented before the enquiry commission for his testimony, which was very important. “I don’t know about rejection of the US demand by Islamabad but Dr Afridi is an important figure as far as the bin Laden episode is concerned and his statement before the commission could help carry forward the ongoing probe into the Abbottabad incident,” the official said.