PESHAWAR: Dr Shakil Afridi’s counsel — Samiullah Afridi — was shot dead Tuesday evening, SSP Operations told DawnNews.

Samiullah Afridi had only recently returned to Pakistan after having spent three months abroad.

SSP Operations said Samiullah Afridi was shot dead near Mithra, Aslam Dheri area of the city, while he was on his way home.

Sources revealed that Samiullah Afridi repeatedly received threatening calls forcing him to drop Dr Shakil Afridi's case and move abroad for his safety.

Different factions of Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) simultaneously claimed responsibility for the attack.

Dr Shakil Afridi, who helped the United States locate Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, has been jailed in Peshawar for his alleged links to various terrorist groups.

In an earlier report based on interviews with friends and relatives of Dr Afridi, the US news channel Fox News claimed that his wife and children were “in increasing fear for their lives and should be evacuated from Pakistan immediately.”

Dr Afridi’s wife and his two sons and a daughter had left their native province and were now hiding in Punjab. They feared for their lives because the Taliban and other terrorist groups had vowed to avenge Bin Laden’s killing, the report said.

Since the arrest of Dr Shakil, who helped US locate Al Qaeda chief by running a vaccination campaign, militants have been carrying out attacks against anti-polio campaigns. TTP militants have openly denounced these campaigns and have killed many health workers and security personnel taking part in these campaigns.

The first ban on polio vaccination was seen in Swat when the outlawed Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan declared administration of oral polio vaccine ‘un-Islamic’ and stopped local residents from giving the said vaccine to children under five. The ban was slapped in 2008 during the Taliban’s rule. In 2009, Swat district reported 20 polio cases, the highest number in the country that year.

Gunmen on Tuesday killed two women who were members of a polio vaccination team and a police guard in Mansehra, the latest in a spate of deadly attacks on the teams.

Pakistan is one of only three countries where polio remains endemic.

Attempts to eradicate it have been badly hit by militant attacks on immunisation teams that have claimed 76 lives since December 2012.

The militants claim the polio vaccination drive is a front for espionage or a conspiracy to sterilise Muslims.

Last year, the number of polio cases recorded in Pakistan soared to 306, the highest in 14 years.