# Deadly Blast in Pakistan May Have Targeted Judge in Afridi Case



## longknife (May 2, 2013)

> A deadly suicide attack in Peshawar, Pakistan today that killed 10 and injured 70 was reportedly aimed at Police Commissioner Sahibzada Anees, the presiding officer in the appeal of Dr. Shakil Afridi, the man who helped the U.S. search for Osama bin Laden and is now serving a 33-year sentence on terrorism charges.



Read more @ Deadly Blast in Pakistan May Have Targeted Judge in Afridi Case

The doctor helps us find Osama Bin Laden and our Politician-in-Chief won't lift a hand to help him.


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## waltky (May 5, 2013)

Pakistan gearin' up for elections...

*Pakistan's changing political landscape*
_30 April 2013 - Pakistan can be an unpredictable place. But in a chequered history that has kept lurching from crises to coups, one event has kept coming back, with reassuring certainty - elections._


> I've covered almost every one of them since 1988 when martial law abruptly ended and a people who fought for democracy directed their energies and enthusiasm towards the battle for ballots.  What boisterous campaigns there've been - massive rallies that packed stadiums and fields, convoys of vehicles snaking, horns blaring, through villages and down highways - a chaotic carnival in every constituency.  But elections in Pakistan can't be like that anymore. It's simply too dangerous. Not a day goes by without a report of an attack by one of many armed groups on a politician, or a public space, or the police.
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See also:

*Pakistan faces 'bloodiest' election*
_2 May 2013 - Pakistan's elections are being called the bloodiest ever. But that's not the only reason why they stand apart._


> There's another message on the back of black T-shirted elite anti-terrorism police - NO FEAR, in bold white capital letters.  And it's not just well-trained muscled gunmen at campaign rallies who want to say they're not afraid.  Leaders of three political parties, publicly threatened by Pakistani Taliban, or TTP, stood shoulder-to-shoulder and announced this week they would not be cowed by their threats of violence.  Not a day goes by without election attacks and deaths on the front pages of Pakistani newspapers.
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## waltky (May 8, 2013)

Imran Khan falls at political rally...

*Leading Pakistan politician falls, injures skull*
_May 7,`13 -- One of Pakistan's most prominent politicians, former cricket star Imran Khan, fell at a political rally Tuesday, leaving him with two hairline skull fractures and knocking him off the campaign trail ahead of Saturday's general election._


> Khan has emerged as a wild-card candidate and it is unclear how much his widespread personal popularity will translate into votes at the polls. His Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, however, is considered one of the top three parties in the country. Khan was treated at the hospital he himself built in honor of his late mother in the eastern city of Lahore. Doctors told local television that Kahn suffered two minor fractures to the skull and had a backache, but none of his injuries were life-threatening.
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> Just hours after the fall, the charismatic politician spoke to reporters from his hospital bed. He was visibly shaken and had a cut on his forehead, but he was still asking people to vote for his party. "I have done whatever I could do," he told national broadcaster Dunya TV. "Now you have to decide whether you want to make a new Pakistan." Asad Omar, leader of Khan's party, told Pakistan's Geo News that party leaders would meet Wednesday to discuss how to continue his campaign during the next three days. He said Khan will spend the night at the hospital, and that doctors are asking him to rest for 15 days. But the former cricket star, Omar said, is in good physical condition and wants to resume his political activities as soon as possible.
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See also:

*How will Imran Khan's fall affect Pakistan's election?*
_7 May 2013 - In an election called the most unpredictable in Pakistan's history, the campaign took a turn no-one expected._


> Imran Khan, a rising political star, took a fall. Images of the country's former cricket captain tumbling from a wooden lift next to a stage played over and over again on Pakistan's many 24-hour channels. And, with his fall, the political high ground rose. His chief challenger, Nawaz Sharif, declared at his rally he was cancelling his campaigning the next day in sympathy and solidarity.
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> Political leaders across the spectrum sent wishes and offered prayers. President Asif Ali Zardari sent flowers to the Lahore hospital where Mr Khan was under observation after suffering a head injury that needed several stitches. Suddenly, there seemed to be a rare moment of fair play on the political playing fields. After weeks of denouncing and demeaning each other, bitter rivals ended the invective.
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## waltky (May 11, 2013)

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif claims Pakistan election win...

*Pakistan's Sharif declares election victory*
_May 11,`13  -- Former Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif declared victory following a historic election marred by violence Saturday, a remarkable comeback for a leader once toppled in a military coup and sent into exile._


> The 63-year-old Sharif, who has twice served as premier, touted his success after unofficial, partial vote counts showed his Pakistan Muslim League-N party with an overwhelming lead. The party weathered a strong campaign by former cricket star Imran Khan that energized Pakistan's young people.  Sharif expressed a desire to work with all parties to solve the country's problems in a victory speech given to his supporters in the eastern city of Lahore as his lead in the national election became apparent based on vote counts announced by Pakistan state TV.
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> The results, which need to be officially confirmed, indicated Sharif's party has an overwhelming lead but would fall short of winning a majority of the 272 directly elected national assembly seats. That means he would have to put together a ruling coalition, which could make it more difficult to tackle the country's many problems.  "I appeal to all to come sit with me at the table so that this nation can get rid of this curse of power cuts, inflation and unemployment," Sharif said.
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## waltky (Dec 18, 2013)

Afridi faces new legal challenge...

*Pakistan doctor who helped find Osama bin Laden in legal tussle*
_Dec 18, 2013: A Pakistani doctor jailed after helping the CIA find Osama bin Laden faces fresh legal wrangling after an appeal tribunal on Wednesday said a retrial order was "ambiguous" and needed clarification._


> Shakeel Afridi was convicted of treason under the country's tribal justice system for alleged ties to militants and jailed for 33 years in May 2012, but the authorities set aside the sentence in August on appeal and ordered a retrial.  Lawyers for the doctor challenged the August ruling, made by the commissioner of the northwestern city of Peshawar, in the Federally-Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) Tribunal.  They sought bail for Afridi and argued that the retrial should involve a complete re-investigation of the case including hearing and cross-examining witnesses again, and not simply a reconsideration of the existing evidence.
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> The FATA Tribunal said on Wednesday in a written judgment that the August ruling was "ambiguous and self-contradictory" and directed the Peshawar commissioner to issue a fresh order to clarify matters.  "The tribunal has asked him to remove ambiguities from his order and make a clear decision and send it back to us," tribunal chairman Shah Wali Khan told reporters after issuing the order.  Afridi was arrested after US troops killed al-Qaida chief bin Laden in May 2011 in the northwestern town of Abbottabad. Islamabad branded the raid a violation of sovereignty and US relations fell to an all-time low.
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## waltky (Dec 20, 2016)

The Donald gonna make a deal to free Afridi?...




*Pakistan ‘Willing’ to Discuss Freedom for Doctor Who Helped Find Bin Laden*
_December 16, 2016  — Pakistan says “it would be willing” to discuss with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s administration freedom for a jailed Pakistani doctor who helped the United States track down Osama bin Laden._


> The doctor, Shakil Afridi, is serving 33 years in a Pakistani prison on treason charges. U.S. authorities have denounced Afridi’s treatment as unjust and unwarranted and have frequently demanded his release.  “Pakistan would be willing to look at how we could move forward in a resolution of this problem,” Tariq Fatemi, the Pakistani prime minister’s foreign policy aide, told VOA’s Urdu service.  “We are not holding on to Dr. Shakil Afridi because of some personal animosity,” he insisted.
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## waltky (Sep 12, 2017)

Dr. Afridi’s name has come up in numerous pieces of U.S. legislation over recent years...




*16 Years After 9/11, Doctor Who Helped Find Bin Laden Remains in Pakistan Prison*
_September 11, 2017  – As the United States marks the 16th anniversary of al-Qaeda’s devastating attack, the Pakistani doctor who helped in the effort to track down Osama bin Laden six years ago remains imprisoned, despite efforts by U.S. lawmakers to condition U.S. aid on his freedom._


> On Thursday. the Senate Appropriations Committee passed a FY 2018 spending bill which, once again, withholds $33 million in economic and security assistance to Pakistan until the secretary of state certifies “that Dr. Shakil Afridi has been released from prison and cleared of all charges relating to the assistance provided to the United States in locating Osama bin Laden.”  The withheld amount deliberately points to the 33-year prison term to which Afridi was sentenced in May 2012. Although he was convicted on charges unrelated to the hunt for the fugitive terrorist, his supporters in the U.S. Congress and elsewhere have no doubt the jail term is payback for his role in the bin Laden affair.  Pakistan was acutely embarrassed by the discovery that the world’s most-wanted terrorist had been able to live, undetected, for years in a house less than half a mile from a top Pakistani military academy, and 70 miles from the capital.
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> Afridi was arrested several weeks after U.S. Navy SEALS raided the compound in Abbottabad on May 2, 2011 and killed the man held responsible for the deaths of almost 3,000 people killed when hijacked planes were flown into the World Trade Center in New York, the Pentagon, and a field in rural Pennsylvania.  U.S. officials later confirmed that Afridi had helped to identify the occupants of the Abbottabad compound by obtaining DNA evidence under the cover of a public vaccination campaign.  Leon Panetta, who was CIA director at the time of the raid, told CBS “60 Minutes” in 2012 that Afridi had “helped provide intelligence that was very helpful with regards to this operation.”  After being incarcerated for a year, accused originally of treason, Afridi was convicted in a Peshawar tribal tribunal in May 2012 of links to an obscure extremist group.
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## waltky (Jan 23, 2018)

Shakil Afridi remains in Pakistani jail...




*Doctor who aided hunt for bin Laden remains in jail*
_Tue, Jan 23, 2018 - Shakil Afridi has languished in jail for years — since 2011, when the Pakistani doctor used a vaccination scam in an attempt to identify Osama bin Laden’s home, aiding US Navy Seals who tracked and killed the al-Qaeda leader._


> Americans might wonder how Pakistan could imprison a man who helped track down the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks. Pakistanis are apt to ask a different question: How could the US betray its trust and cheapen its sovereignty with a secret nighttime raid that shamed the military and its intelligence agencies?  “The Shakil Afridi saga is the perfect metaphor for US-Pakistan relations” — a growing tangle of mistrust and miscommunication that threatens to jeopardize key efforts against terrorism, said Michael Kugelman, Asia program deputy director at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington.  The US believes its financial support entitles it to Pakistan’s backing in its efforts to defeat the Taliban — then-US presidential candidate Donald Trump pledged to free Afridi, telling Fox News in April 2016 he would get him out of prison in “two minutes ... because we give a lot of aid to Pakistan.”
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> However, Pakistan is resentful of what it sees as US interference in its affairs.  Mohammed Amir Rana, director of the independent Pakistan Institute of Peace Studies in Islamabad, said the trust deficit between the two nations is an old story that will not be rewritten until Pakistan and the US revise their expectations of each other, recognize their divergent security concerns and plot an Afghan war strategy, other than the current one which is to both kill and talk to the Taliban.  “Shakil Afridi [is] part of the larger puzzle,” he said.  Afridi has not seen his lawyer since 2012, and his wife and children are his only visitors. For two years his file “disappeared,” delaying a court appeal that still has not proceeded.
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## longknife (Jan 23, 2018)

waltky said:


> Shakil Afridi remains in Pakistani jail...
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Why the hell aren't we doing anything to help this poor guy? We owe him big time.


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## waltky (Jan 23, 2018)

Mebbe dey'll free him...

... if dey want dey's aid reinstated.


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