RAWALPINDI - The authorities have shifted Dr Shakeel Afridi from Adiala to Sahiwal Jail for security reasons, sources said on Sunday.

The high-profile prisoner was shifted by a helicopter before dawn, the sources added. Security was beefed up inside and outside Adiala Jail during shifting of the prisoner.

For the second time the authorities have shifted Afridi from one jail to another. Earlier, he was imprisoned at Peshawar Jail before he was moved to Adiala Jail in April 2018.

The sources also claimed that family of Dr Shakeel Afridi including his wife, son and daughter had a meeting with him in Adiala jail on August 3 with the permission of Punjab Home Department.

In May 2011, Pakistani authorities had taken Dr Shakeel Afridi into custody soon after the killing of Al-Qaeda head Osama bin Laden by the US Navy Seals in a ‘secret operation’ in Bilal Town, Abbottabad. He was accused of sharing information with the CIA about the presence of Osama bin Laden in a heavily-guarded compound in Abbottabad. However, Dr Shakeel Afridi was never tried for such charges by any court of law. Instead, he was tried and convicted in a treason case in May 2012 under the Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) and was awarded 33-year imprisonment. Later, the sentence was reduced to 10 years by the FCR Commissioner.

Meanwhile, Hanif Abbasi was shifted to Adiala Jail from Rawalpindi Institute of Cardiology after doctors declared his condition stable. Earlier, the PML-N stalwart was rushed to the RIC after he suffered a cardiac arrest in his cell at the jail. The doctors conducted angioplasty of Abbasi and also fixed a stent.

Abbasi is completing his life sentence in Adiala Jail after a court of law convicted him in the Ephedrine smuggling case.