Washington : United States is puting up pressure on Pakistan to release a doctor being held for helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden as the diplomatic falling-out between the countries grows more bitter.
Dr Shakil Afridi was arrested by Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency after it discovered he had been recruited by the CIA to run a fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad to try to get DNA samples from the al-Qaida leader's suspected hideout.
American authorities are trying to rescue the Pakistani doctor, his wife and children, and take them to the United States, according to Pakistani and US officials.
The recruitment of Afridi has added to the tensions. The doctor, in his late 40s, is thought to have been detained in late May or early June, and is not thought to have been charged. He is being held for working for a foreign intelligence agency, which can be punishable by the death penalty.
Friends say they last saw him attend the funeral of a distant family member in Peshawar, the provincial capital of the north-west, on 18 May. Afridi worked as the doctor in charge of Khyber, part of the tribal area, on the edge of Peshawar. It is believed that he was snatched by the ISI at Karkhano bazaar, a market for smuggled goods, on his way back home to Peshawar from work in Khyber, that lies between Peshawar and Khyber. He was initially held in custody in Peshawar, but may have been transferred to custody in Islamabad.
Doctor Afridi graduated in 1990 from Khyber Medical College had been accused of corruption in the past according to one person who knows him.
The CIA recruited Afridi, who set up a fake vaccination programme in Abbottabad. It was hoped that this would produce a DNA sample from one of the Bin Laden children. A nurse working for the doctor managed to get inside the compound, though it is not thought that the right DNA was obtained.
