The US Congress has adopted an amendment in a bill for next year’s defence expenditures. The bill also contains demand for the release of Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA track down former Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2012.
Afridi had assisted US intelligence agency by running a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad which led to the hunt of Osama bin Laden by US forces. Bin Laden was supposedly killed in the raid on his compound in Abbotabad on May 22, 2012.
Afridi was arrested by Pakistani authorities from Peshawar where he is still in custody under high security.
He was convicted of treason for alleged ties to militants and jailed for 33 years in May 2012. However, a tribunal reduced the 33-year imprisonment to 23 years in March this year.
The US has been demanding Afridi’s release, attaching it with Pakistan’s aid.
