International FRIDAY, AUGUST 30, 2013 to retry doctor who helped CIA get Laden ’s 33-year jail term overturned : A Pakistani judicial official Peshawar’s Commissioner confirmed yesterday overturned the 33-year jail the account. term handed down to a doctor who “The Commissioner after hearing the helped the CIA track Al-Qaeda chief appeal by Doctor Shakeel Afridi has Osama bin Laden and ordered a retrial, ordered the retrial,” the official told AFP a lawyer and an official said. on condition of anonymity. Samiullah Shakeel Afridi was arrested after US Afridi, the defense lawyer, said he troops killed the terror leader in May argued that the Assistant Political 2011 in the town of Abbottabad, where Agent was not authorized to pass such Afridi had set up a fake vaccination pro- a long sentence, no proper trial was gram in the hope of obtaining DNA held and his client was not given an samples to identify the Al-Qaeda leader. opportunity to defend himself. Afridi He was convicted in 2012 for treason was not present in the court during his over alleged ties to militant group trial and could not argue in his own Lashkar-e-Islam and not for working for defense, officials said after his convic- the CIA, for which the court said it did tion. Under the tribal system, he would not have jurisdiction. But angry US law- not have had access to a lawyer. makers saw the sentence as retaliation The appeal also said Afridi had “no for his role in bin Laden’s capture, and association” with Lashkar-e-Islam, last year threatened to freeze millions according to a copy obtained by AFP. of dollars in vital aid to Islamabad. Lashkar-e-Islam, led by warlord Mangal MUMBAI: Indian Hindu devotees form a human pyramid to Then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Bagh, is widely feared for kidnappings break the dahi-handi, curd-pot, suspended in the air during denounced Afridi’s treatment as “unjust and extortion in the tribal district of celebrations of Janmashtami, which marks the birth of and unwarranted.” Khyber, where Afridi worked for years. Hindu God Lord Krishna, in Mumbai yesterday.—AFP Afridi was also fined 320,000 rupees The appeal, filed on June 1, 2012, said ($3,500). He was found guilty under the Afridi was kidnapped by Lashkar-e- Pakistani surgeon Shakeel Afridi, tribal justice system of Khyber district, Islam in 2008 and ordered to pay one who was working for the CIA to help Police seek Indian part of Pakistan’s semi-autonomous million rupees ($10,660). The tribal find Osama bin Laden, as he attends tribal belt. The appeal, filed by Afridi’s court had said that Afridi paid two mil- a malaria control campaign in Khyber brother Jamil through lawyers, said the lion rupees to the faction and helped to tribal district. —AFP guru on sexual allegations were “false, concocted and provide medical assistance to militant without foundation”. Yesterday Afridi’s commanders in Khyber. The militants since they sank to all-time lows after the assault claims lawyer told AFP: “The Commissioner of have denied any links to Afridi, saying killing of bin Laden by US commandos Peshawar has set aside the decision of they fined him for overcharging in a raid on his compound. JAIPUR: Police have given a popular Indian guru a Friday the Assistant Political Agent of Khyber patients, and have threatened to kill Pakistan reacted furiously to what it deadline to answer allegations of sexually assaulting a agency and ordered the retrial.” A gov- him. called a violation of its sovereignty over schoolgirl, claims he angrily denounced saying he was ernment source who was present dur- Troubled ties between the United the attack. It insisted it knew nothing “ready to go to prison”. ing the appeal hearing in the office of States and Pakistan have not recovered about bin Laden’s whereabouts. —AFP Police have summoned Asaram Bapu, one of many Indian self-styled “godmen” who attract large numbers of followers, over allegations he abused a teenage girl whose arrests ‘most-wanted’ militant parents are members of his congregation. The white- bearded guru has so far failed to report to a police station NEW : India announced yesterday police custody in the northern state of strides in the past year and a half in arrest- in the western city of . the arrest of Yasin Bhatkal, one of the Bihar, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde ing a number of their (Indian Mujahideen) “I’m ready to go to prison, that is also a kind of heaven nation’s most-wanted men and the said. “He is being interrogated,” Shinde operatives,” he told the NDTV news chan- for me,” an incensed Asaram told reporters yesterday in alleged co-founder of militant group the told reporters in the capital New Delhi. “I nel. “Catching a trained terrorist is very dif- the central city of Bhopal, saying the claims against him Indian Mujahideen, blamed for killing hun- cannot disclose which intelligence agen- ficult and therefore I feel it is a great suc- were a political conspiracy. His office has previously reject- dreds in a string of attacks. Bhatkal, who is cies were involved.” cess.” Bhatkal, from the southern state of ed the allegations as baseless. The incident allegedly took believed to be in his 30s, was arrested near The banned Indian Mujahideen came Karnataka, was arrested in 2008 in the city place on August 15 in Jodhpur, in Rajasthan state, where the porous border with Nepal and is in to public attention in November 2007 fol- of Kolkata but was able to flee after being Asaram was holding a retreat for followers, including the lowing serial blasts in Uttar Pradesh state. granted bail by officers who were unaware 16-year-old girl and her parents, police said. Asaram It is accused of a number of attacks since of his identity, the Times of India reported. allegedly told the parents he needed to meet their daugh- including in Mumbai, Bangalore, New Ajit Kumar Singh, a research fellow at ter alone after being told of concerns she was possessed Delhi and Pune. The group is thought to the Institute of Conflict Management in by evil spirits, police said. head a network of home-grown Islamic New Delhi, said the Bhatkal’s arrest would “The girl along with her parents met Asaram in Jodhpur militant groups which have links to the be a “big catch” but he also urged caution, where the accused took them to a hut on the night of powerful Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba saying the Indian police had a history of August 15,” deputy police commissioner in Jodhpur, Ajay (LeT) and Jaish-e-Mohammed organiza- bungled operations. “The intelligence Lamba, told AFP. tions. Bhatkal was named as a co-conspira- agencies deserve a huge pat on their “He asked her parents to recite some religious Mantras tor over an attack on the German Bakery backs if they have indeed arrested the at the entrance gate and took the girl inside his room restaurant in the western city of Pune in right man,” he added. The fact that two where he allegedly exploited the girl,” Lamba said. The girl 2010 when a bomb placed in a rucksack alleged senior militants have been arrest- told her parents two days later about the alleged attack killed 17 people including five foreigners. ed near the international border with and the family travelled to New Delhi to confront him. The Reports say Bhatkal was captured on CCTV Nepal shows that the Himalayan country guru refused to meet them, prompting them to go to the footage in the restaurant planting the was serving as a “safe haven to them”, he police, local reports and an unnamed police official said. bomb shortly before the blast. His arrest said. Nepal police spokesman Nawa Raj “After initial investigation, we issued notice to Asaram on Wednesday evening is another success Silwal told AFP that Nepalese police were to appear before us for interrogation,” the police official for the Indian security forces following the not involved in the arrest of Bhatkal. said.“He has to appear before us before August 30. A look- detention earlier this month of alleged top The most recent deadly attack believed out notice was also issued to prevent him from fleeing the militant Abdul Karim Tunda, who is to have been mounted by the Indian country.” Asaram uses only one name, with Bapu an hon- thought to be a senior member of the LeT. Mujahideen came in February when twin orific meaning “father”. Asaram has some 350 ashrams in It is not known if the two arrests are bombs strapped to bicycles exploded in India and overseas, where he teaches yoga, meditation linked, but Tunda, who was also arrested the city of Hyderabad, killing 16 people and a spiritual and peaceful existence, according to his This photograph of a combination of near the Nepal border, has been cooperat- and wounding more than 100. website, which also claims his legions of followers consid- handout pictures released by Indian ing with police, according to newspaper It was also linked to bomb attacks on er him a saint. For many Indians, “godmen” play an inte- police officials shows Indian reports. Former home secretary R.K. Singh July 7 at Bodh Gaya, a UNESCO world her- gral role in daily life, offering a pathway to enlightenment Mujahideen operative and alleged said security forces had been working for itage site revered by Buddhists. The blasts in return for spiritual devotion and donations to their mastermind of the July 2011 Mumbai years to catch Bhatkal, whom he called were suspected to have been staged in ashrams, temples and charity projects. — AFP serial blasts, Yasin Bhatkal, at a press “one of the most active terrorists in the retaliation for violence against Muslims in conference in Mumbai. — AFP region”. “I think we have made great Buddhist-majority Myanmar.—AFP