Pakistan claims doc who helped find bin Laden was really an Islamist?

LA Times:
 A Pakistani doctor arrested after helping the CIA track down Osama bin Laden was convicted and sentenced on charges of militancy, Pakistani authorities insisted Wednesday,  not because of his links with the effort to pinpoint the whereabouts of the Al Qaeda leader.
Officials released copies of the verdict handed down against Shakeel Afridi. They show that a tribal court convicted him of aiding Lashkar-e-Islam, a militant group based in the tribal region of Khyber along the Afghan border.
Characterizing the charges as being related to his alleged relationship with Lashkar-e-Islam makes it more difficult for Washington to continue to argue for Afridi’s release.
Last week when Khyber authorities announced Afridi’s conviction and sentence of 33 years, they said the treason verdict against him stemmed from his work with the CIA.
Up until this week, Pakistani authorities had never mentioned any pending charges against Afridi that alleged ties with militant groups. Instead, Islamabad had consistently maintained that he had been detained because he had been collaborating with the CIA, a foreign intelligence agency.
... 
The new position of Pakistan makes no sense.  Why would an Islamic extremist want to help the CIA fin bin Laden.  That argument does not pass the giggle test.  It appears that Pakistan is just trying a way to keep the guy in jail and still get US money.

I don't buy this new position and the US should not either.  It jumps logic off a cliff.

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