The counsel for Dr Shakil Afridi, the jailed Pakistani doctor who had helped the CIA in tracking the al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden in Pakistan’s northwest, was shot dead in Peshawar on Tuesday evening.
Samiullah Afridi, Dr Afridi’s lawyer, had fled to UAE in December 2013 due to threat from militants but had been occasionally visiting Pakistan while keeping a low profile. He had only recently returned to Pakistan after having spent three months abroad. Officials at local police station said that unknown assailants gunned down Samiullah when he was traveling in his car on Warsak Road. He was critically injured in the attack and later succumbed to his injuries at a local hospital.
Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan’s (TTP) faction Jundullah has taken responsibility of the attack. The Pakistani state, minority communities and minority Muslim sects — Shiias and Sufis — have so far been the group’s prime targets.
