Dr Afridi, from CIA asset to solitary cell

Brother says he is constantly trying to evade attention.

PESHAWAR:

There can be few jail cells in the country as lonely as the one occupied by Shakil Afridi, the doctor who helped the CIA hunt down Osama bin Laden.

He is kept in solitary confinement to protect him from hundreds of convicted militants eager to avenge their hero’s death. He may not be safe even from the guards – only two trusted officials are allowed to see him.

Beyond the walls, Afridi is as much a prisoner of Pakistan’s growing resentment of the United States as he is a victim of his own dalliance with high-stakes espionage.

No wonder then that he finds solace in the story of Younus in the Holy Quran, almost identical to that of Jonah in the Old Testament, a prophet whose faith in God delivers him from the belly of a whale.

“My brother was confident that he will be released very soon. He said: ‘I’m innocent, I’ve done nothing wrong,’” Afridi’s brother Jamil told Reuters in a recent interview after visiting the jail in Peshawar.

“There is a prayer said by one of the famous prophets, when he was eaten by a fish,” Jamil added. “Dr Shakil is reciting that same prayer for his safety.”

The history of US spycraft has seen few faster reversals of fortune than Afridi’s journey from a participant in one of the most dramatic covert operations of modern times to isolation in the forbidding confines of Peshawar Central Jail, with red-brick walls and watchtowers.

Jamil Afridi noticed he had gained weight - perhaps because conditions had improved since his transfer to the jail from detention centres used by intelligence agencies.

Jamil, a village schoolteacher, says he himself has been forced to adopt a rudimentary disguise, dark glasses and a cap, to ward off unwanted attention since appearing on TV to defend his younger sibling.

“My brother has become a victim of the US game,” said Jamil, who spends much of his day worried that passersby are actually security agents tailing him. He used the term “angels” for the agents, as many do because they are believed to be everywhere but remain invisible.

“If my brother had really played a role for America, I think the Americans should have kept it secret.”

Published In The Express Tribune, June 26^th, 2012.