According to an 8-page special report, compiled by the Joint Investigation Team (JIT) comprising experts and representatives from five different agencies, Dr Shakil Afridi – who has been convicted to life imprisonment on the charges of extending help to the American CIA in getting access to al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden’s residence and his subsequent assassination – was handled by five US nationals.
The JIT that has compiled this report comprises Senior Superintendent Special Branch Police Peshawar Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, representative of 306 Intelligence Battalion 11 Corps Peshawar, representative of Special Deet 206 Survey Sector Peshawar, GSO representing ISI Peshawar and representative of Intelligence Bureau Peshawar. The JIT prepared the report after detailed interrogation of Dr Shakil who has been sentenced life imprisonment by the political administration of Khyber Agency through Assistant Political Agent Bara. According to this report, Dr Shakil Afridi first met with Mr Michael aka Mike (his first handler), Country Director of the US-funded Save The Children, during a workshop in Peshawar in November 2008. Before meeting with Mr Mike, Dr Shakil Afridi had been abducted and made a hostage by the banned Lashkar-e-Islam headed by Mangal Bagh.
Dr. Shakil in his first ever meeting with Mr Mike suggested that they meet later in Islamabad. This next meeting between them was held near to Saeed Book Bank, Jinnah Super Market. Both of them proceeded to a house in F/6 Islamabad where Dr Shakil was introduced to a lady named Kate, his second handler. The meeting continued for around one and half an hour and after having dinner, Dr Shakil was dropped at a petrol pump in F/6. The next meeting was fixed on the first Saturday of the next month. Meetings and contacts with Kate continued till December 2010.
Later, he met with another handler Sara and she handed him a radio set and laptop for sending and receiving messages. Along with Kate and Sara, another handler Toni succeeded in convincing Dr Shakil of being involved in the now-infamous phony polio vaccination campaign. Along with the polio vaccination campaign, a hepatitis vaccination campaign was also to be undertaken.
In January 2011, Mr Suee – Dr Shakil’s final handler – sent Dr Shakil on a Hepatitis-B vaccination drive to Bagh and Muzzaffarabad in Azad Kashmir and Mansehra and Abbottabad in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. This drive was to be focused on women between 15 to 45 years. On March 13, Dr Shakil started vaccination at Nawa Sheher, Abbottabad. He was instructed by Suee to include Bilal Town of Abbottabad in the drive. While conducting this drive, Dr Shakil was informed by a Lady Health Worker that all dwellers of Bilal Town had been vaccinated except for one household (Bin Laden’s) in Pathan Street. The lady health worker further told Dr Shakil that the people living in the fort like villa that had not been vaccinated lived in isolation due to personal enmities.
However, Dr Shakil succeeded in engaging in a telephonic conversation with one of the occupants of the house. The campaign was then completed with help of lady health workers and female social workers from Abbottabad. Later, the vaccination kits used and other records were handed over to Mr Suee in Islamabad. Mr Suee gave Rs 5.3 million to Dr Shakil in lieu of conducting the campaign. After the assassination of Al Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, suspect Dr Shakil Afridi was invited by Mr. Suee to Islamabad on 5th or on 6th May 2011. Dr Shakil then told Mr Suee that his life was in danger due to his involvement in the polio vaccination campaign in the area of Bin Laden’s compound. Suee suggested him to go to Kabul. But Dr Shakil, considering himself to be innocent in the Osama Bin Laden assassination, declined to go to Kabul. Dr Shakil was also told by Mr Suee in their last meeting to destroy the radio set and laptop given to him.
