23 Facts About Shakil Afridi

Shakil Afridi, or Shakeel Afridi, is a Pakistani physician who allegedly helped the CIA run a fake hepatitis vaccine program in Abbottabad, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, in order to confirm Osama bin Laden's presence in the city by obtaining DNA samples.

Shakil Afridi was arrested at the Torkham while trying to flee the country days after the raid.

Shakil Afridi comes from a Pashtun family and in 1990 graduated from the Khyber Medical College, Peshawar.

Shakil Afridi had been working as the doctor in-charge of Khyber Agency of the former Federally Administered Tribal Areas of Pakistan.

In July 2011, Shakil Afridi was described as being in his late 40s.

Shakil Afridi was the chief surgeon at Jamrud Hospital in Pakistan's northwestern Khyber tribal region.

Shakil Afridi's colleagues were suspicious of Afridi's absences, which he explained as "business" to attend to in Abbottabad.

Shakil Afridi was accused of having taken six World Health Organization cooler boxes without authorisation.

Shakil Afridi's residence was sealed by Pakistani authorities and his family moved to an undisclosed location.

Family members and a member of his legal counsel stated Shakil Afridi had been tortured while in Pakistani custody during November 2012.

In March 2014, Waad ur Rahman, an Express Tribune blogger argued that through a fair trial, Shakil Afridi would have a chance to defend why he did not disclose the location of bin Laden to Pakistani authorities.

Shakil Afridi said, only denial of fair trial, makes him an absolute victim of law.

On 28 May 2012, Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said according to the law in Pakistan, Shakil Afridi has the right to defend himself and should be granted access to higher courts.

On 30 May 2012, Shakil Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison for aiding banned militant group Lashkar-e-Islam and not for his links to the CIA, as officials had said earlier, according to a court document.

Shakil Afridi was initially detained at the Apbara headquarters of the ISI in Islamabad before being moved to a Peshawar Central Jail in May 2012.

In May 2018, Shakil Afridi was moved from prison to a 'safer location' by Pakistani intelligence officials.

In late November 2012 Pakistani news provider, The Express Tribune, reported that Shakil Afridi had gone on a hunger strike protesting his prison conditions in the Peshawar jail.

The US Secretary of Defense, who was then former CIA Chief Leon Panetta, has confirmed the role of Shakil Afridi in ascertaining the whereabouts of bin Laden inside the compound in Abbottabad.

US authorities said that before his arrest, Shakil Afridi turned down an opportunity to leave his country and resettle overseas with his family.

Shakil Afridi was later accused of treason and sentenced to 33 years in prison because of his ties to an extremist.

The retired official said that Shakil Afridi had been recruited long before the bin Laden mission as part of a separate intelligence effort to get information about suspected terrorists in Abbottabad and the surrounding area.

The court said Shakil Afridi paid two million rupees to Lashkar-e-Islam and helped to provide medical assistance to militant commanders in Khyber.

Local residents have told AFP that Mangal Bagh fined Shakil Afridi for performing "unnecessary surgeries and over-charging" patients at his private clinic in the town of Bara.