More than a decade after US Navy SEALs raided Abbottabad and killed Osama bin Laden, the man who helped locate the world’s most wanted terrorist remains locked in a Pakistani prison – not hailed, but punished. Dr Shakil Afridi, a physician who ran a fake vaccination campaign to confirm Bin Laden’s presence for the CIA, has become one of the clearest symbols of Pakistan’s duplicitous war on terror.
While the United States considers him a hero who played a critical role in dismantling al-Qaeda’s leadership, Pakistan brands him a traitor, revealing where its loyalties truly lie. Afridi’s imprisonment underscores an uncomfortable truth: in Pakistan, those who expose terrorists are silenced, while those who shelter them enjoy impunity. His case exposes the deep-rooted nexus between Pakistan’s security establishment and terror networks.
The man behind CIA’s greatest manhunt
Dr. Afridi was a Pakistani physician working in Khyber Agency, part of Pakistan’s Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA), near the Afghanistan border. In 2011, he was recruited by the CIA to run a fake hepatitis B vaccination campaign in Abbottabad, the city where bin Laden was later found and killed by US Navy SEALs in a clandestine raid in May of that year.
The aim of the covert operation was to obtain DNA samples from residents in the bin Laden compound. This would help confirm the identity of the people living inside, including whether they were related to the world’s most wanted terrorist. Although it's unclear if the vaccination drive directly led to bin Laden’s capture, Afridi's work has been widely seen as instrumental in narrowing down his whereabouts.
In 2008, Dr Afridi was abducted by Mangal Bagh, a former bus driver turned Lashkar-e-Islam commander, and released after his family paid a PKR 1 million ransom. Though he moved to the US afterward, he returned to Pakistan in 2009, finding American life unsuitable, according to National Geographic.
Branded a hero in US, a traitor at home
While the US has openly hailed Afridi’s actions, Pakistan responded with fury after the raid, embarrassed by the fact that bin Laden had been living within walking distance of a major military academy in Abbottabad. For Pakistan’s military and intelligence establishment, the fact that Afridi cooperated with the CIA without informing Pakistani authorities was an unforgivable act of betrayal.
Soon after the US operation, Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities. But rather than charging him directly for his involvement in the CIA-led mission, he was sentenced in 2012 to 33 years in prison for alleged links to the militant group Lashkar-e-Islam, a charge widely seen as a cover to punish him for aiding the Americans.
His sentence was later reduced and overturned on procedural grounds, but he remains imprisoned to this day on various charges. Access to legal counsel and fair trial mechanisms has been severely limited, with his family also facing threats and harassment.
Renewed calls for his release
This week, Dr Afridi’s case resurfaced on the international stage after US Congressman Brad Sherman raised the issue with a visiting Pakistani delegation led by former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari. Sherman pressed for Afridi’s immediate release, stating: “I urged the Pakistani delegation to relay to their government the need to free Dr. Shakil Afridi, who continues to languish in prison for helping the United States kill Osama Bin Laden. Freeing Dr. Afridi represents an important step in bringing closure for victims of 9/11.”
Sherman also urged Pakistan to dismantle the “vile” terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM), which has long operated with impunity from Pakistani soil and has been linked to major terror attacks in India. In the same breath, he called for increased protections for Pakistan’s religious minorities, highlighting the growing international scrutiny over Pakistan’s internal human rights situation.
Dr. Afridi’s continued imprisonment has become a symbol of Pakistan’s ambiguous approach to counterterrorism. While it presents itself as a US ally in the war on terror, it continues to shield extremist elements like Jaish-e-Mohammed, Lashkar-e-Taiba, and the Taliban factions operating in Afghanistan and Kashmir. At the same time, it punishes those who dare to help eliminate real threats like Osama bin Laden.
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