CIA links: Dr Afridi terms charges against him fabricated

Alleges that he was coerced into making false statements before judge.

In the over 30-page reply submitted to the Peshawar High Court by Shakil Afridi, the man accused of espionage has stoutly negated all allegations against him and termed the case a fabrication of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

“I was severely tortured and forced to give false statements before the magistrate, otherwise they (ISI) threatened to kill me in a police encounter.

“I was appointed by the additional chief secretary FATA in 2010 as a surgeon in Khyber Agency, but I did not meet the political agent of the area. At the time, Bara was under curfew and all the hospitals were closed,” maintained Afridi.

He added that the Dogra Hospital, which he was made in-charge of, was under the army’s control and hence his involvement with the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) was impossible.

Shakil Afridi also said his arrest by authorities was unconstitutional and he was detained without a warrant. “If I did have any links with LI at the time, why was I arrested in Hayatabad, Peshawar and not in Khyber Agency?”

“The health department and the Fata Secretariat were kept in the dark about my detention. Health department’s officials fired me because of my absence from duty.”

He alleged that Assistant Political Agent of Khyber Agency Nasir Khan was coerced by the ISI into arresting him without any investigation. “He told me his job depended on it.”

Afridi said Khan was a relative of militant commander of Bajaur Maulvi Faqeer Muhammad and was dismissed by Political Agent Shafeeullah Wazir for having a “soft corner” for militants.

Afridi said he never visited Bara after March 2008 because LI chief Mangal Bagh had banned him from entering the area. “The technical staff was moved to Jamrud in September 2009.”

About the death sentence handed to him by a Jirga, Afridi said he met no representative of the tribal council. “None of the members belonged to my tribe and the APA forced some persons to give false statements. I have no house in Jamrud and have been a resident of Hayatabad for the past 12 years.”

Of his detention and spending nearly a year in custody of intelligence agencies, Afridi says no one else has ever been convicted in the same way he has been.

“It is a joke and slap on the face of the judicial system in Pakistan.” Afridi maintained he saw Mangal Bagh for the first time when he was kidnapped by the militant outfit in 2008.

He also accused the intelligence agencies for kidnapping him then, saying “Mangal was trained by them (ISI) and is their person. This fact was told to me by the political agent and the security secretary of Fata.”

About the anti-polio vaccination programmes in the area, Afridi said the one in Nawa Shehar was fabricated.

“The lady health workers used to hand empty vaccine vials to the assistant coordinator of the campaign along with used kits which were then disposed of. The purpose of this was to show vaccines had been used during counter checking.”

He said three campaigns were carried out altogether. The first one was held in March and the third one in the last week of April. He also accused the ISI of siphoning off funds allocated under the immunization drive. “If the campaign was illegal, why didn’t I escape to Afghanistan? Neither did I know them (Lashkar-e-Islam) nor did they know me.”

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2012.