24th May, 2012, Peshawar (Pakistan): The troubled relationship between the United States and Pakistan suffered another blow as a doctor, named Dr. Shakil Afridi, has been sentenced 33 years in prison for helping CIA, the United States intelligence agency, to hunt down bin Laden. The doctor has been convicted for conspiring against the nation.
United States Officials has requested Pakistan to release the doctor. Dr. Shakil Afridi used to carry a vaccination program for Central Intelligence Agency and he verified the presence of bin Laden at the Abbottabad house compound, where United Navy SEALs raided and killed the world’s most wanted terrorist in May last year.
The sentence, delivered on Wednesday, can be taken as another example of Pakistan’s defiant act against American wishes. On Wednesday, in an interview on “CBS Evening News”, Leon Panetta, the United States Defense Secretary and former CIA director, told that the doctor was very helpful in that operation. He told, “For them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part.”
This news came days after the Chicago NATO Summit ended. Pakistan was invited in that summit to have a dialogue regarding the reopening NATO supply routes in Pakistan that was closed after the NATO drone attack in which several Pakistani armies were killed.
