Osama`s Dr Afridi barred from meeting family

Islamabad: Pakistani doctor Shakeel Afridi, who helped the U.S. locate Osama Bin Laden, has been barred from meeting his relatives and lawyers following an interview with an American TV channel.

On September 11, a correspondent for Fox News claimed he interviewed Dr Afridi by phone from inside the jail and spoke to him for 45 minutes, a claim prison authorities and his lawyers termed baseless and unfounded. During the interview Dr Afridi, reportedly made allegations against the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) for its alleged links with militant groups opposed to the US. According to the Nation, when Dr. Afridi’s brother Jamil and lawyer Qamar Nadeem wanted to meet him in the prison recently, the jail authorities turned them back. The paper quoted some sources, as saying that after the Fox News interview, the intelligence agencies representatives also met with Dr Shakeel Afridi in the prison and interrogated him about his interview and the allegations that he levelled against the ISI. Earlier, after being convicted and shifted to the Peshawar Central Prison, the provincial government had banned meetings with the doctor for security reasons and possible attacks against him by militants. But in the wake of the complaints by his family members and after having filed a petition in the Peshawar High Court for allowing them to meet Shakeel Afridi, the provincial government allowed them to meet him once a month. ANI