Interior Minister Rehman Malik. -File Photo

ISLAMABAD: Federal Interior Minister Rehman Malik said on Wednesday said that the investigations of Shakeel Afridi’s interview to the international media are underway, DawnNews reported.

Malik said that Afridi was not allowed to speak to media representatives and give any interviews.

Earlier it was reported that, Afridi, who helped the CIA nail Osama bin Laden, told a US television channel that the ISI considered America Pakistan’s “worst enemy”.

Fox News had claimed that its correspondent had conducted the interview in the Peshawar Centre Jail, and quoted Dr Afridi as saying that he suffered “brutal interrogation and torture” when arrested.

According to Fox News claims, Afridi accused the ISI of funding militants.

The ISI rubbished as ‘fiction’ on Tuesday a reported interview by a US TV channel of jailed Dr Shakeel Afridi, allegedly involved in tracing Al Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.

“There is no evidence to suggest that Fox News correspondent had interviewed Dr Afridi,” a senior security official said after preliminary investigations.

“It is all concocted and baseless,” he said as he laughed off the claims made in the interview. “It’s amusing how well he (as reported in the interview) learnt about ISI operations from the cell in which he was kept blindfolded for eight months, as claimed by him,” he added.

The interior minister said that he will be visiting United States soon and he would also raise the issue of Dr Afia Siddiqui.

Commenting on the visit of the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances’ delegation to Pakistan, Malik said that the team is visiting Pakistan on the invitation of Pakistan’s foreign office, Adding that, the team is not mandated to conduct any kind of investigation in this regard.

The UN team would hold meeting with Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf, he added.

Opinion

Editorial

Digital growth
Updated 25 Apr, 2024

Digital growth

Democratising digital development will catalyse a rapid, if not immediate, improvement in human development indicators for the underserved segments of the Pakistani citizenry.
Nikah rights
25 Apr, 2024

Nikah rights

THE Supreme Court recently delivered a judgement championing the rights of women within a marriage. The ruling...
Campus crackdowns
25 Apr, 2024

Campus crackdowns

WHILE most Western governments have either been gladly facilitating Israel’s genocidal war in Gaza, or meekly...
Ties with Tehran
Updated 24 Apr, 2024

Ties with Tehran

Tomorrow, if ties between Washington and Beijing nosedive, and the US asks Pakistan to reconsider CPEC, will we comply?
Working together
24 Apr, 2024

Working together

PAKISTAN’S democracy seems adrift, and no one understands this better than our politicians. The system has gone...
Farmers’ anxiety
24 Apr, 2024

Farmers’ anxiety

WHEAT prices in Punjab have plummeted far below the minimum support price owing to a bumper harvest, reckless...