Banned outfit denies links with Shakeel Afridi

Lashkar-e-Islam, a banned militant outfit, has denied links with CIA agent Dr Shakil Afrdi, who helped US trace Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, the garrison town of Pakistan.

Shakeel Afridi was on May 24 sentenced to 33 years in jail after he was found guilty of treason under Pakistan’s system of tribal justice.

Afridi was convicted by the court of treason under the penal code, but for alleged ties to Lashkar-e-Islam and not for working for the CIA. Lashkar-e-Islam, led by bus conductor turned warlord Mangal Bagh, is a militant organisation feared for kidnappings and extortion in his home district of Khyber.

The court order said Afridi had “close links” to the group, saying the doctor’s “love” for Bagh and “association with him was an open secret”.

A militant commander told a news agency on Thursday that they would have killed Dr Afridi if they had found him.

He told that the doctor was fined 2 million by the organization over malpractices. According to a private television channel the news agency quoted the militant commander as saying that Dr Afrdi had no links with the Lashkar-e-Islam.

It was extensively being believed that Afrdi was punished for helping US kill Osama but a detailed judgment of a court of political assistant disclosed that he was awarded 33-year jail term for having links with Lashkar-e-Islam.

The court said Afridi paid two million rupees ($21,000) to Lashkar-i-Islam and helped to provide medical assistance to militant commanders in Khyber.

But the commander said the $21,000 was a fine imposed for over-charging patients.

The report observed, “Afridi and his fellow doctor were fleecing tribesmen, giving them fake medicines and doing fake surgeries. We had a lot of complaints against them and imposed a fine of two million rupees on them”.

According to the local people, Bagh fined Afridi for performing unnecessary surgeries and over-charging patients at his private clinic in the town of Bara.

Short URL: https://www.newspakistan.pk/?p=24251

Posted by Faisal Farooq on May 31 2012. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.