ISLAMABAD: The counsel for Dr Shakil Afridi, the jailed Pakistani doctor who had helped the CIA in tracking the al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan’s northwest, was shot dead in Peshawar on Tuesday evening.
Samiullah Afridi, Dr Afridi’s lawyer, had fled to UAE in December 2013 due to threat from militants but had been occasionally visiting Pakistan while keeping a low profile. He had only recently returned to Pakistan after having spent three months abroad. Officials at local police station said that unknown assailants gunned down Samiullah when he was traveling in his car on Warsak Road. He was critically injured in the attack and later succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) faction Jundullah has taken responsibility of the attack. The Pakistani state, minority communities and minority Muslim sects — Shiias and Sufis — have so far been the group’s prime targets.
Dr Afridi has been accused of aiding the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in obtaining DNA samples of Osama Bin Laden through a fake vaccination campaign was sentenced to 33 years in prison for high treason by a tribal court in May 2012.
Since his arrest, militants have been denouncing and carrying out attacks against anti-polio campaigns. Since December 2012, the TTP militants have killed around 80 health workers and security personnel taking part in these campaigns. (PTI)
