'Osama doc' Afridi's brother denied permission to meet him in jail

The brother of jailed Pakistani doctor, Shakil Afridi, who helped the US track down Osama bin Laden, cannot meet him in prison, authorities at the Peshawar Central Prison said.

The authorities said only wife and children of Afridi were entitled to meet him in Khyber tribal district.

According to Dawn News, the lawyer for Afridi later said Jamil Afridi had again contacted the provincial home department for permission to meet his brother.

The prison authorities had restricted Afridi's meetings after Fox TV channel telecast an interview purportedly by him in September 2012.

In the interview conducted over the cell phone with the help of a prison guard, Afridi had claimed that after the US operation in Abbottabad to kill Laden, the Pakistani intelligence agencies kidnapped and tortured him.

He added that after the operation, Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency considered the US its worst enemy, the report said.

A few days ago, Jamil had formally requested the provincial home department to lift the ban, prompting the home department to seek opinion of the prison department.

The department had recommended that only male members of the family be allowed to meet Afridi once a month.

The prison department opposed the meeting between the female relatives and the doctor, saying the jail authorities could face problems in body-searching women, who could accordingly take prohibited items to the premises, the report added.