US lawmaker asks Pakistan to free Dr Shakil Afridi who helped CIA in tracing Laden

A US lawmaker has asked Islamabad to free Shakil Afridi, the “hero” doctor who helped the CIA to trace out Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

“Pakistan claims to be United States’ number one counterterrorism ally, yet they hypocritically hold this hero in a Pakistani prison. Pakistan is no friend of the US,” Congressman Ted Poe said on the floor of the US House of Representatives.

“They are on the wrong side in the war on terror.  Pakistan hid Osama bin Laden from the world,” the Congressman said in his remarks on Monday.

The Republican lawmaker from Texas said Dr Afridi deserves a medal for aiding the elimination of Osama bin Laden, not life in prison.

“Pakistan should free him, and it is time to declare Pakistan a state sponsor of terrorism. And that is just the way it is,” Poe said.

“Mr Speaker, the day that Osama bin Laden, the world’s number one terrorist, met his maker was a great day in the war on terror. But finding America’s most wanted terrorist hiding in Pakistan was no easy feat,” he said.

“Pakistani Dr Afridi worked with our CIA to help determine and confirm Osama’s hiding place in Pakistan by using DNA evidence. But after Osama bin Laden was killed, Pakistan threw Dr Afridi in jail. Why? Because he helped the United States find Osama bin Laden,” Poe said.

Bin Laden was killed on May 2, 2011, by US Navy SEALs during a raid in Pakistan’s Abbottabad.

Poe assured Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s (MQM) Pakistan Coordination Committee Convener Nadeem Nusrat that he will sit quiet and calm over these inhuman acts and would play his role to seek an end to these atrocities and injustices, which the Mohajirs are victims of, a media release said.

MQM Convener informed Poe in detail about the multi-faceted agony of Mohajirs in Karachi, the alleged atrocities on them from Pakistan’s security forces under state repressive actions.