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In his reply to the Peshawar High Court, jailed Pakistani doctor, the Osama doc Shakil Afridi, accused of espionage, has categorically denied all allegations against him. He termed the case a fabrication of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). "I was severely tortured and forced to give false statements before the magistrate, otherwise they (ISI) threatened to kill me in a police encounter," The Express Tribune quoted Dr Afridi, as saying. "I was appointed by the additional chief secretary FATA in 2010 as a surgeon in Khyber Agency, but I did not meet the political agent of the area. At the time, Bara was under curfew and all the hospitals were closed," he said. He added that the Dogra Hospital , which he was made in-charge of, was under the army's control and hence his involvement with the Lashkar-e-Islami (LI) was impossible. He also said his arrest by authorities was unconstitutional and he was detained without a warrant. "The health department and the Fata Secretariat were kept in the dark about my detention. Health department's officials fired me because of my absence from duty," he said. He alleged that Assistant Political Agent of Khyber Agency Nasir Khan was coerced by the ISI into arresting him without any investigation. "He told me his job depended on it," he said. Afridi said he never visited Bara after March 2008 because LI chief Mangal Bagh had banned him from entering the area. Of his detention and spending nearly a year in custody of intelligence agencies, Afridi says no one else has ever been convicted in the same way he has been. Dr Afridi maintained he saw Mangal Bagh for the first time when he was kidnapped by the militant outfit in 2008. He also accused the ISI for kidnapping him then, saying "Mangal was trained by them (ISI) and is their person. This fact was told to me by the political agent and the security secretary of Fata."

Osama doc Afridi says charges against him are fabricated