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US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has said he is "very concerned" about a Pakistani doctor arrested for providing intelligence for the US raid that killed Osama Bin Laden last year.
Dr Shikal Afridi is accused of running a CIA-run programme in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed. A Pakistan panel says he should be tried for treason. Mr Panetta told the CBS TV network the arrest had been "a real mistake" and that Dr Afridi provided "very helpful" information for the raid, he added. "I'm very concerned about what the Pakistanis did with this individual. His action was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan."
"As a matter of fact Pakistan and the United States have a common cause here against terrorism and for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part," Mr Panetta said.
Dr Afridi was arrested shortly after the operation, carried out by US special forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad on 2 May last year leaving Pakistan deeply embarrassed by the raid.
In the aftermath of the operation, reports emerged that the CIA had recruited the doctor to organise a phoney vaccination programme in Abbottabad, the aim of the which was allegedly to confirm Bin Laden's presence in the city by obtaining a DNA sample from residents. Last October, a Pakistani commission investigating the raid recommended that Dr Afridi should be tried for high treason.
Washington has been arguing that Dr Afridi should be freed and allowed to live in the US. Mr Panetta also repeated US claims that someone in authority in Pakistan must have known where Bin Laden was hiding at the compound - located close to the country's top military academy.
Source: BBC
Read more: Al Jazeera
Dr Shikal Afridi is accused of running a CIA-run programme in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed. A Pakistan panel says he should be tried for treason. Mr Panetta told the CBS TV network the arrest had been "a real mistake" and that Dr Afridi provided "very helpful" information for the raid, he added. "I'm very concerned about what the Pakistanis did with this individual. His action was not in any way treasonous towards Pakistan."
"As a matter of fact Pakistan and the United States have a common cause here against terrorism and for them to take this kind of action against somebody who was helping to go after terrorism, I just think is a real mistake on their part," Mr Panetta said.
Dr Afridi was arrested shortly after the operation, carried out by US special forces in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad on 2 May last year leaving Pakistan deeply embarrassed by the raid.
In the aftermath of the operation, reports emerged that the CIA had recruited the doctor to organise a phoney vaccination programme in Abbottabad, the aim of the which was allegedly to confirm Bin Laden's presence in the city by obtaining a DNA sample from residents. Last October, a Pakistani commission investigating the raid recommended that Dr Afridi should be tried for high treason.
Washington has been arguing that Dr Afridi should be freed and allowed to live in the US. Mr Panetta also repeated US claims that someone in authority in Pakistan must have known where Bin Laden was hiding at the compound - located close to the country's top military academy.
Source: BBC
Read more: Al Jazeera
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