Livid U.S. cuts 33 mln dollars in aid to 'double dealing' Pak over Osama doctor sentence

Washington, May 25 (ANI): In a fresh blow to the battered relations between America and Pakistan, U.S. Congressmen on the powerful Senate appropriations committee have voted to deduct 1 million dollars from the 800 million dollars annual budget for each of the 33 years that Dr Shakeel Afridi has been sentenced to, for working with the U.S. Central Investigation Agency (CIA).

Dr Afridi had set up a fake vaccination campaign in Abbottabad in an attempt to obtain blood samples from Osama Bin Laden's family, as the CIA tried to confirm the Al-Qaeda chief's presence in a nearby villa, reports The Nation.

U.S. senators, including John McCain, have described Dr Afridi as "courageous, heroic, and patriotic," and demanded that he be pardoned.

"We don't need a Pakistan that is just double dealing," said Lindsey Graham, a Republican of South Carolina.

Their intervention came after a retired Pakistani army officer familiar with the case revealed that Dr Afridi had told his interrogators that his handlers never disclosed their target's identity, the paper states. (ANI)