Shakil Afridi has been languishing in prison for almost eight years after his fake vaccination program helped US agents track and kill the Al-Qaeda leader Top prison official in KP says Afridi was moved by intelligence officials to the safer place due to security reasons late Thursday ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have shifted Dr. Shakil Afridi, who helped the CIA kill Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden, from a jail in Peshawar apparently over security concerns, his lawyer Qamar Nadeem said on Saturday. “I can confirm 95 percent that Afridi has been moved to a prison in Punjab,” Nadeem told Arab News, adding that a tribunal will hear his client’s review petition on May 31. Afridi’s brother Jamil told Arab News that the family were not told what the security reasons were behind the move from the jail in Peshawar. He said the jail is easily accessible for family members, but the one in Punjab is not. The inspector general for prisons in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province, Shahid Ullah, told Arab News that Afridi was moved on Friday, but refused to say why. The KP government’s adviser on prisons, Malik Qasim Khattak, said: “It was our longstanding demand to shift Dr. Shakil from Peshawar.” He added that Afridi is a high-profile case, and Peshawar prison is not appropriate for him. Afridi was arrested in May 2011 after US Special Forces killed bin Laden in a raid on a compound in Abbottabad. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison for treason, but the sentence was reduced by 10 years after an appeal. Afridi was working in Abbottabad hospital, and had allegedly used a fake polio vaccination campaign to confirm bin Laden’s presence. But authorities cited Afridi’s alleged links with a banned militant group for his punishment. He will complete seven years in jail next month. His appeal against his sentence is scheduled to be heard on May 31. Afridi’s lawyer rebuffed the authorities’ reported claim about security concerns, saying: “Peshawar is more secure than jails in Punjab as it’s located near several high-security buildings and the Peshawar military corps.” Afridi’s arrest has been a major irritant in US-Pakistani relations, as Islamabad has rejected repeated American calls to free the convict, who is considered a hero in the US but a traitor by many in Pakistan.