PESHAWAR: Dr Shakil Afridi, a government surgeon who helped the CIA uncover Osama bin Laden’s whereabouts, was sentenced imprisonment for 33 years under FCR, Aaj news reported.

He was shifted to the Central jail.

Earlier, The government of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa has issued a notification of dismissal of Dr Shakeel Afridi,” provincial health secretary Ashfaq Khan told reporters.
The notification stated that Afridi had been terminated under the Efficiency & Disciplinary (E&D) Rules guideline for being involved in anti-state activities.

In January, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta confirmed Afridi had aided US intelligence by collecting DNA to verify Bin Laden’s presence, and expressed concern about Pakistan’s treatment of him.

British newspaper “The Guardian” reported last July that the CIA set up a fake vaccination drive in Abbottabad in the hope of obtaining DNA samples from the house where they suspected Bin Laden was living. Afridi had been recruited by the agency in the elaborate scheme to verify if those living in the house were Bin Laden and his family, under the pretext of vaccinating the residents for polio.

Afridi’s trial took place over several days under assistant political agent Nasir Khan in Khyber. The verdict was confirmed by his boss, the political agent, in the northwestern city of Peshawar on Wednesday, the officials told AFP.

Under Pakistan’s tribal justice system, Afridi has the right to appeal.

Critics said Wednesday that he should not have been tried under tribal law in the tribal belt for an alleged crime that took place outside their jurisdiction.

He was sentenced under penal code clauses related to offences against the state, conspiracy or attempt to wage war against Pakistan, concealing with intent designs to wage war against the state and on charges of working against the country’s sovereignty, a Khyber administration official told AFP.

US intelligence was not 100% certain that the al Qaeda chief was living in the Abbottabad house when President Barack Obama gave the approval for Navy SEALs to raid the compound on May 2.