&imwidth=800&imheight=600&format=webp&quality=medium "9/11 attack anniversary: How Dr Shakeel Afridi, who helped US kill Osama Bin Laden, was hunted down, jailed by Pakistan")
The United States is commemorating the 24th anniversary of the September 11 attack on World Trade Centre in New York City and the Pentagon headquarters that claimed an estimated 2,996 lives in 2001. The attack was orchestrated by al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden, who was killed in a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) raid in Pakistan's Abbottabad in May 2011.
But how did the CIA get to Laden who evaded them for over a decade after carrying out the September 11 or the 9/11 attacks? It is a Pakistani doctor Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA in locating the most wanted terrorist.
Afridi is seen as a hero in the US but has been languishing in a Pakistani jail for years after the raid on Laden. A local court sentenced him to 33 years in prison on the pretext of "false" case as claimed by US critics.
In early June, US Congressman Brad Sherman had asked a visiting delegation of Pakistani ministers to release Dr Shakil Afridi from jail.
"I urged the Pakistani delegation to relay to their government the need to free Dr. Shakil Afridi, who continues to languish in prison for helping the United States kill Osama Bin Laden. Freeing Dr. Afridi represents an important step in bringing closure for victims of 9/11," posted Sherman on microblogging site X.
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Pakistan has not paid much heed to the demands of US and Afridi continues to languish in some Pakistani jail.
Early life of Afridi
According to National Geographic, Afridi finished his graduation from Khyber Medical College in Peshawar in 1990 and served as the senior health official of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.
Later he went on to co-own a private clinic near the Khyber Pass. In 2008, a bus driver turned commander of a Pakistani militant group, Lashkar-e-Islam abducted Afridi. A ransom of PKR 1 million was given to the abductor by Afridi's family to secure his release.
Soon after being released, Afridi left for the US with his family. However, he returned to Pakistan by late 2009, the National Geographic report states.
Shakil Afridi and Osama Bin Laden connection
Afridi is seen as a hero in the US but has been languishing in jail in his country Pakistan for years.
He helped the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) run a covert polio vaccination programme in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province to collect DNA samples of bin Laden’s family.
Shortly after the CIA raided Bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad in May 2011, based on inputs, Pakistani authorities arrested Afridi. Later a local court sentenced him to 33 years in prison.
Abbottabad is bout 160 kilometres west of Peshawar, Pakistan.
