Dr Shakil Afridi’s ex-lawyer shot dead

Samiullah Afridi had stopped pursuing the case after receiving threats

PESHAWAR: A former lawyer for Dr Shakil Afridi, who had helped the American CIA track down al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in his Abbottabad compound, nearly four years ago was shot dead by gunmen on the outskirts of Peshawar Tuesday evening.

Police confirmed that the lawyer, Samiullah Afridi, was targeted at Aslam Dher, in the Mathra area. The gunmen fled the scene unchallenged and unidentified. Police refused to share details, saying that they were investigating the incident.

However, relatives and friends said Samiullah was driving from his chamber in Peshawar city to his residence located on Warsak Road when the gunmen opened fire on his vehicle with AK-47 assault rifles. Samiullah received several bullets and died on the spot.

Within minutes of the attack, Fahad Marwat, a purported spokesperson for the banned militant group Jundullah called Peshawar-based media persons from an undisclosed location to claim responsibility for the killing.

Interestingly however, TTP Jamaatul Ahrar rejected Jundullah’s claim, saying Samiullah was targeted by Taliban gunmen.

Dr Shakil Afridi, the former surgeon of Khyber Agency, had run a phony vaccination campaign in Abbottabad to help the CIA track down Bin Laden in his compound and kill him in a controversial raid on May 2, 2011.

A year later, Dr Afridi was sentenced to 33 years in prison by the political administration of Khyber Agency under the Frontier Crimes Regulation, the colonial-era laws that govern Pakistan’s tribal regions, for having links with banned militant groups.

Subsequently, Samiullah challenged Dr Afridi’s conviction in the Peshawar High Court. Later a panel of lawyers, headed by Latif Afridi, was constituted to defend Dr Shakil in the PHC.

Samiullah received threats from militants and left for the United Arab Emirates in December 2013. He returned to Pakistan in mid-2014 and announced his disassociation from the panel.

In an earlier interview with The Express Tribune, Samiullah had also spoken about threats to his life.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 18^th, 2015.