Dr Shakil Afridi, the former Khyber Agency surgeon who colluded with the CIA in tracking down al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, has been handed down a 33-year rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 320,000 on charges of treason against the country and its people. In case of default, he will undergo further rigorous imprisonment for three years.
The punishment was announced by Mohammad Nasir Khan, assistant political agent of Bara, Khyber Agency, on Wednesday. The official said that Afridi’s trial had been in progress over the last three months at a secret place in Peshawar, and a court announced the verdict after taking the traditional tribal jirga into confidence. Dr Afridi, who belongs to Bara tehsil of Khyber Agency, had served under the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and FATA Health Directorate in various capacities. He ran a fake polio vaccination campaign in Abbottabad in collusion with the CIA to collect DNA samples from Bin Laden’s family members. Around 11 nurses of the Health Department have already been removed by the government.
Reacting to Afridi’s sentence, the US Defence Department said that Afridi had helped provide intelligence that was very helpful with regards to operation against the al Qaeda chief, and that he had not committed treason towards Pakistan in any way. A spokesperson of the department said that Pakistan and the United States shared a common cause against terrorism and al Qaeda. The spokesperson said that the secretary had already stated that “it is a real mistake on Pakistan’s part”. After the verdict was announced, Dr Afridi was shifted to Peshawar Central Jail.
He has the right of appeal before the Khyber Agency political agent under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR). The official said that Afridi had been tried under 121-Pakistan Penal Code (PPC)/11 FCR, 123 PPC/11 FCR, 123-A 1/PPC 11 FCR and 124-PPC/11 FCR. He said that all these sections pertained to: (1) involvement in treason against the country and its people; (2) help in treason; (3) misuse of official status; and (4) extending help to foreigners and contacts with the foreigners. Two months ago, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government fired Dr Afridi and his wife, who was serving as a professor at Education Department.
How about holding accountable people responsible for the security of this country? Afterall, the world's most wanted man was caught and killed in Pakistan, that too in a place supposedly as secure as Abbotabad !
It seems that just about everyone, from the Americans to the Taliban are running amok in this last of the pure. Our armed forces and intelligence are suppose to be some of the finest in the world.
Your armed forces are the only forces in the world which have lost every war they fought !!! and your intellegence agencies are nothing more than a supari killers who can torture and kill innocent journalists, Mohajirs, Baluch nationalists or getting planes hijacked !!! or be a host to world's deadliest terrorists.
Says a jealous Indian
Read Indo China war history.You will be ashamed of your Armed Forces.But you are used to it.
This verdict show the real face of Pakistan. If Pakistan was a genunine terror fighter, it should have rewarded this man for helping in tracking down the most dreaded terrorist of the world. But instead clearly Pakistan was hosting Osama and felt ashamed at being exposed playing a double game. Now the anger is directed against this poor doctor. It is not extremist elements in Pakistan which are helping terrorists, in fact whole Pakitsan is rotten.No wonder all terrorists want to go to Pakistan as it is safe heaven for them. Shame.
Awarding 33 years imprisonment to Dr. Skakeel Afridi on treason contradicts recent statements of Pakistan Govt that its agencies provided vital telephone numbers that led the way to OBL's compound in Abottabad. Beleving this statement to be true, Dr Afridi's role is secondary and is limited to identify the DNA of OBL family members in that compound. This shows that Pakistan's secret agencies and Dr. Afridi were working to reach the same goal. How come that Dr. Afridi is charged with treason and punished.
you got them pants down …
Hahahaha …
Not exactly, after intel passed to US, ISI wasnt kept in the loop. Dr got punishment because he didnt inform the Pakistani authorities and instead worked as spy to another country and got punished for this.
One year after Bin Laden’s death and over 10 years since 9/11, American citizens are still blindly allowing their civil liberties to be taken away one piece of legislation at a time. How much freedom are we willing to sacrifice to feel safe? Under the guise of fighting terrorism, the Patriot Act was adopted WITHOUT public approval or vote just weeks after the twin towers fell. These laws are simply a means to spy on our own citizens and to detain and torture dissidents without trial or a right to council. You can read much more about living in this Orwellian society of fear and see my visual response to these measures on my artist’s blog at http://dregstudiosart.blogspot.com/2011/09/living…
toured your site …
You live by your underwear only. What's your worry?
By the way, Orwell is Victorian ….
If one traitor gets 33 years, why can't we hang the other traitor gillani?
seems gilani fff ur ssss. People r talking abt Jirga decision, and you steered the wagan towards gillani.
Sorry it took me a while to respond Nawaz. You sis won't leave me alone. She wanted it one more time 🙂
you r happy with ur mom having …up sleeeps with her general cohorts. …ard like u know all the divisions n brigades doing uppp ur mom. It took while coz you were counting the numbers …ur mom. In the end u wud report her how many they were
Nawaz, don't make me shove you back in th hole you came out of. Correction. I could probably just slide you back in there 🙂
'Patli gally se nikal bhagna' ke liye, Pakistan has invented a new metaphor: One man's terrorist is another's freedom fighter. Dr Shakil Afridi has rightly been punished for not following this patli-galli 'principle'. Osama Bin Laden was the freedom fighter for Nizam-e-mustafa. Dr Shakil Afridi is a traitor of those freedom fighters.
What about holding those accountable who should have known about Usama's presence in the region. If Musharraf or Zardari had handed over Bin Ladin to the US, nobody would have spoken a word. It is just like hanging the one whom the noose fits!
Shaking should have not been killed but should have life imprisonment.
Comments are closed.