Brother denied meeting with Dr Shakil Afridi

Jamil Afridi told that only the doctor’s wife and children could meet him.

PESHAWAR: Jamil Afridi, the brother of alleged CIA informant Dr Shakil Afridi, filed another application to the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government seeing permission to meet his brother at the central prison in Peshawar.

Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in jail on May 24, 2012 for allegations of aiding banned militant outfit Lashkar-e-Islam (LI). The doctor is also has also been alleged of helping CIA in hunting down Osama bin Laden by launching a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad.

A tribal court of the Khyber Agency had sentenced Afridi, who is currently being held at the central prison in Peshawar, and soon after the verdict legal experts and human rights activists challenged the administration’s decision. A panel of lawyers, mostly from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), had obtained Afridi’s power of attorney to challenge the verdict in court.

After being allowed a meeting with his sisters in August 2012 at the Central Jail Peshawar, Afridi has since been banned from meeting his family over the controversial interview aired by Fox News. The interview was termed baseless by the government.

Sources said Jamil Afridi met Inspector General Prisons Khalid Abbas on Friday seeking a meeting after the provincial government allowed the doctor’s relatives to meet him, however, the meeting was denied by Abbas citing reasons that only the doctor’s wife and children could meet him.

“Jamil Afridi was told to file another application to the home department,” the official said, adding that another application has been filed to the home and tribal affairs department.