Life threat: K-P asks federal govt to take custody of Dr Afridi

Says intelligence agencies cautioned of the possibility of an attack on the doctor.

ISLAMABAD:

In view of the recent jail attacks and repeated requests of his lawyers, the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) government has once again asked the federal government to shift Dr Shakeel Afridi to a safer place.

The K-P government wrote a letter to the federal government last week stressing the need to finalise a strategy to take custody of the doctor who had helped the US agencies in pinpointing Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts in Abbottabad.

“The central prison Peshawar is holding nearly 3,000 prisoners and 250 of them are confined on terror charges. These diehard militants could attack Afridi,” said the letter, which a senior official of the interior ministry shared with The Express Tribune.

It said intelligence agencies had repeatedly cautioned the K-P government against the possibility of an attack on Afridi, whose 33-year sentence has been recently set aside by a Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) commissioner.



“We do not want a replay of the recent jail breaks in Bannu and Dera Ismail Khan. If the government does not consider our formal requests then the provincial government should not be blamed if any other incident of prison break takes place in Peshawar,” the letter read.

The K-P chief minister’s adviser for prisons, Malik Qasim, confirmed that in this regard the provincial government had forwarded another request to the federal government.

“He [Shakeel Afridi] is a prisoner of the federal government and it is not binding on the provincial government to provide him security at a higher level,” he added.

Qasim said the provincial government also had intelligence reports that Afridi might be attacked and harmed by prison inmates as there were a number of Taliban fighters imprisoned in Central Prison Peshawar.

“We are compelled to request for Afridi’s shifting from Peshawar as appreciating statements from US and rumours about Afridi’s swap with Afia has increased threats to our client’s safety,” said Ejaz Afridi, who heads the lawyers panel of Dr Afridi.

Ejaz Afridi said there was a dire need to beef up Afridi’s and his judges’ security as they also might face serious threats.  “Our demand to prosecute Afridi in special trial courts should be seriously considered,” he added.

The lawyers also demanded that a place in Islamabad should be declared as sub-jail for Dr Afridi as has been done in Musharraf’s case.

Although the federal government is yet to officially respond to the requests set forth by the provincial government, the interior ministry upon special directives of Prime Minister Nawaaz Sharif is in process to finalise a plan to shift Dr. Shakeel Afridi to federal capital, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The prime minister has directed Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar to look into the matter after receiving refusals from other three provinces to take custody of the surgeon, in view the sensitivity of his case and recent prison break in D I Khan.

Interior minister has directed the security agencies to finalise the matter before the end of September.

An official placed at the US Consulate Peshawar said on the condition of anonymity that the FCR commissioner’s recent decision to set aside the doctor’s conviction might be a result of ongoing cooperation between Pakistan and the US.

“This can produce positive results including an early release of Dr Aafia detained in US,” he added.

Judicial official Sahibzada Mohammad Anees ordered a new trial on the grounds that another official had exceeded his authority when handing down last year’s sentence.  Afridi remains in custody.


Published in The Express Tribune, September 8^th, 2013.