LI denies link to Dr Shakeel Afridi
01 June, 2012
DERA ISMAIL KHAN /PESHAWAR: Deepening the mystery in a case that is straining Islamabad's relations with Washington, the Lashkar-e-Islam (LI) said on Thursday it never had ties to Dr Shakeel Afridi, who helped the CIA find Osama bin Laden, even though he was jailed for aiding them. A court document released on Wednesday stated that Afridi was imprisoned for 33 years for supporting the LI terrorist group. "We have no link to such a shameless man. If we see him we'll chew him alive," said a commander in the group. "There is no truth to this. We want to get him ourselves. If we get hold of him, we are going to punish him according to Shariah," Abdul Rasheed, an LI commander, told Reuters. Rasheed said Afridi was a bad doctor who had mistreated people and that was why they wanted to punish him. "He is a traitor, an enemy of Islam, a greedy blackmailer," he said. The comments are likely to raise new questions about Afridi's case, which has come to symbolise the strains in the alliance between Pakistan and the United States. US officials hail Afridi as a hero. End.
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