Fearing death, Pakistani doctor refuses to eat prison meals

By IANS,

Islamabad : Shakeel Afridi, the Pakistani doctor who helped the CIA track down Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad, has refused to eat meals provided by the jail authorities in Peshawar fearing he may be poisoned.


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Sources told Geo News, Afridi has refused to eat prison food, and that on his demand, prison authorities have provided him with essential items and cooking utensils so that he could prepare his own food.

Afridi was charged with treason for helping the US track down and kill bin Laden. He has been jailed for 30 years.

He was found guilty of carrying out a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad in order to get DNA samples of bin Laden. Afridi was also fined 320,000 rupees (around $3,400). If he failed to pay, he could face another three years in jail.

US commandos killed bin Laden in a raid on his hideout at Abbottabad near Rawalpindi May 2 last year.

The doctor was arrested 20 days later while trying to escape to Afghanistan.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Amir Hyder Khan has urged the federal government to shift Afridi from Peshawar to any other place in the country citing threat to the doctor’s life from terrorists imprisoned in the central jail of Peshawar, Online news agency reported.

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