Pakistani Taliban issue death threat to doctor for helping CIA find bin Laden

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2012-06-03

The Pakistani doctor accused of helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden is in danger of being killed with the Pakistani Taliban vowing to "cut him into pieces".

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Shakeel Afridi, who is being held in a prison in Peshawar in northwest Pakistan, is the number one target on the Pakistani Taliban's hit list.

"We will cut him into pieces when we find him," Pakistani Taliban spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan told CNN by phone. "He spied for the U.S. to hunt down our hero Osama bin Laden."

A court in Pakistan's tribal region sentenced Afridi to 33 years in prison last week.

Afridi was running a vaccination program for the CIA near bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

The program was an attempt to collect DNA from bin Laden's relatives in order to verify that the most wanted terrorist was in the compound. Bin Laden was killed in a top secret raid by the Navy SEAL on the compound on May 2, 2011.

The court sentenced Afridi for alleged connections to the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam and not for helping the CIA search for the Al Qaeda boss.

The court released documents claiming that Afridi had allegedly given the group two million rupees, or $21,000, and provided medical care for militants.

However, the Lashkar-e-Islam has denied any links to "such a shameless man" and said they would kill Afridi if given the chance. The group told AFP that the money was a fine levied by them against Afridi.

Meanwhile, his brother told CNN he fears for Afridi's safety and urged the US to help set him free.

"These allegations are false. They're baseless," said Jamil Afridi.

"My brother didn't do anything against Pakistan. If he helped the U.S., it was for the benefit of Pakistan. The American government should help us in any way it can," the CNN quoted him as saying.

Last week the U.S. Senate moved to cut Pakistani aid by $33 million -- $1 million for every year of Afridi's sentence -- in response to his conviction.

Source: The Asia News.Net

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