New Delhi: Samiullah Afridi, a Pakistani lawyer, was gunned down by ISI-supported Islamist terrorists for defending Dr Shakil Afridi. Afridi was the doctor who helped the US’s CIA locate, identify and then kill Osama bin Laden in Abbottabad. Now, Samiullah Afridi’s family will hold a press conference in Peshawar to expose the atrocities perpetrated on them by Pakistan’s deep state and the Army. MyNation is not disclosing the time and venue of the presser as the family fears reprisals.

Reaching out to MyNation in India, the family’s representative, whose identity we are not at liberty to disclose, said that the family had been living under constant threat to their lives and livelihood and were persistently harassed by Pakistan army and its spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

“The advocate’s son Adnan Samiullah will hold a press conference at the Peshawar press club and tell the world the harrowing ordeal that the family has been suffering since their father was killed in 2015. He was constantly threatened to leave defending Dr Shakil Afridi. We expect the world to hear the ordeal of the family,” he told MyNation.

Samiullah Afridi was shot dead near Mithra, Aslam Dheri area of Peshawar, while on his way back home. He was repeatedly being threatened to force him to drop Dr Shakil Afridi's case and move abroad for the sake of his family’s safety and his wellbeing.

Dr Afridi’s wife and two sons and a daughter had gone into hiding somewhere in Punjab. The Taliban, among others, had vowed to avenge Bin Laden’s killing.

Dr Shakil Afridi allegedly ran a fake vaccination programme and thus obtained the DNA samples of bin Laden and his family, based on which a US Navy Seal team raid and killed the mastermind of 9/11.

While he is considered a national hero in the US, the doctor arrested just days after the strike in 2011 was accused, tried and found guilty of treason for helping the US. He was also convicted on the pretext of having ties with terrorist group Lashkar e-Islam and apart from facing a murder trial related to the death of a patient more than a decade ago.

After the arrest, Pentagon chief Leon Panetta and then-secretary of state Hillary Clinton had openly recognized Afridi’s contribution in ridding the world of bin Laden. Even US President Donald Trump has promised to get Dr Shakil Afridi released. It is also suspected that the US had also planned a bin laden kind of operation to lift the doctor out of Pakistan.