Doc who helped hunt Osama 'dealt with as per law': Pak

A Pakistani doctor, who was arrested for helping the Central Investigation Agency in its hunt for Osama bin Laden, is being dealt with according to the country's laws, foreign office spokesman Abdul Basit has said.

Pakistan expects other countries to respect its legal process in the case of Shakil Afridi, Basit said. His remarks yesterday came in the wake of US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's comments that there was no basis for the detention of Afridi by Pakistani authorities.

"He is being dealt with in accordance with our law. We expect all to respect our legal process, and to refrain from making groundless insinuations and drawing premature conclusions," Basit said.

Afridi has been detained by Pakistani security agencies on charges of involvement in the CIA operation to hunt down Osama bin Laden when the al Qaeda chief was hiding in the garrison town of Abbottabad.

US special forces killed bin Laden in his compound in Abbottabad during a raid on May 2 last year.

In the weeks before the operation against bin Laden, the CIA used Afridi to set up a fake vaccination scheme in Abbottabad to gain entry to the compound and extract DNA samples from his family members.

At a Congressional hearing on Friday, Clinton said there was "no basis for holding Dr Afridi or any of his staff". She said the doctor's work "on behalf of the effort to take down bin Laden was in Pakistan's interest, as well as the US's interest."

US lawmaker Dana Rohrabacher has submitted a bill in the House of Representatives to grant Afridi American citizenship and to award him the Congressional gold medal.

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