US lawmaker asks Pakistan to release Shakil Afridi: Who is the doctor who helped CIA hunt Osama bin Laden?

A Pakistani doctor hailed as a hero in the United States but seen as a “traitor” in his own country continues to languish in jail. Now, a senior American lawmaker has called for the release of Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the US track down al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden.

Congressman Brad Sherman told a visiting Pakistani delegation, led by former Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, to emphasise to their government the need to release Afridi from prison. “Freeing Dr Afridi represents an important step in bringing closure for victims of 9/11,” he said.

Sherman also called on Pakistan to do "all it can" to eliminate the "vile" terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) and ensure the protection of religious minorities.

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. 2/5

— Congressman Brad Sherman (@BradSherman) June 5, 2025

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As Shakil Afridi gains centre stage again, let’s take a look at who he is.

Who is Shakil Afridi?

Dr Shakil Afridi is a Pakistani doctor who helped the US’ Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the hunt for al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

Afridi graduated from Khyber Medical College in Peshawar in 1990. He served as the senior health official of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province.

Afridi later went on to co-own a private clinic near the Khyber Pass. In 2008, he was abducted by Mangal Bagh, a bus driver turned commander of a Pakistani militant group, Lashkar-e-Islam.

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His family had to pay a ransom of PKR 1 million to secure the doctor’s release. After he was freed, Afridi moved to the US with his family. However, he returned to Pakistan by late 2009 as American life did not suit him, as per the National Geographic report.

His role in Osama bin Laden’s killing

Afridi has reportedly told Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) that he was recruited by the CIA through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), which had collaborated with Save the Children to vaccinate children in Pakistan.

As head of health services in Khyber tribal district, the doctor had supervised several US-funded vaccination programmes. He proved to be an asset for the CIA, which was looking to confirm bin Laden’s hideout in the military town of Abbottabad, about 160 kilometres west of Peshawar, Pakistan.

Afridi was told to launch a hepatitis B vaccination programme, including in Abbottabad, where bin Laden was hiding. The US intelligence plan was to obtain a blood sample from one of the children living in the Abbottabad compound to identify whether they were relatives of bin Laden, reported BBC.

In April 2011, Afridi knocked on the door of the three-story white house surrounded by 20-foot-high walls in Bilal Town, Abbottabad, where bin Laden was hiding.

According to the National Geographic report, a woman opened the door who said no one was home and when pressed for the house owner’s number, gave one for “Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed”.

The CIA knew that a man named Ibrahim Saeed Ahmed was bin Laden’s trusted courier.

On May 2, 2011, US Navy SEAL Team Six raided bin Laden's compound in Abbottabad , killed the 9/11 attacks mastermind and took his body, without any challenge.

The operation was a huge embarrassment for Pakistan as Laden was hiding so close to Pakistani military installations.

There was a wave of anger against Dr Afridi in the South Asian country. He was arrested on May 23, 2011, 20 days after bin Laden was killed.

Shakil Afridi remains behind bars

Afridi, who was 48 years old at the time of his arrest, was initially accused of treason.

However, in May 2012, a Pakistani tribal court sentenced him to 33 years in prison for funding the now-defunct Lashkar-e-Islam under a colonial-era law. This “financial assistance” was the ransom that his family gave to the group for the doctor’s release after they kidnapped him in 2008.

Afridi’s sentence was later reduced to 23 years on appeal. He is lodged in Pakistan’s Punjab’s Sahiwal Central Prison, with his plea against his conviction still pending.

“Let’s be clear: Afridi has paid the highest price,” Michael Kugelman, Director of the South Asia Institute at the Wilson Centre in Washington, told AFP. “He became the fall guy.”

In an interview with Fox News in 2012 from his prison cell, the doctor said he had been kidnapped and tortured by Pakistani intelligence.

It remains unclear whether Dr Afridi knew he was working for the CIA. US intelligence specialists say even if he knew, the Pakistani doctor is unlikely to have known that the man whose location he helped to identify was the notorious terrorist Osama bin Laden, reported National Geographic. 

There were talks between the US and Pakistan of a prisoner swap. However, the deal to exchange Shakil Afridi for Dr Aafia Siddi­qui never materialised.

Siddi­qui is an alleged al-Qaeda operative currently jailed in the US.

The fallout of Shakil Afridi’s case was the growing distrust in vaccine campaigns in Pakistan, with families refusing to inoculate children for curable diseases such as polio.

“Whenever someone works for a foreign intelligence agency, it’s one of the most unforgivable crimes,” Asad Durrani, the former head of Pakistan’s ISI, told AFP in 2021, saying that Afridi’s arrest likely saved the doctor from being lynched.

With inputs from agencies