After four years in detention, Isa Khan was released from the US jail for terror suspects at Guantanamo Bay last year and repatriated to Pakistan, but he says he's still not a free man.
Khan, a physician, said Pakistani authorities keep him under surveillance and restrict his movements even though he's been cleared of any link to terrorism. The monitoring, he says, has caused him to contemplate suicide.
The government denies harassing any of the 60 Pakistanis who have been freed from Guantanamo, but Pakistan's human rights commission said on Tuesday it is investigating similar complaints from other former detainees.
Khan was sent to the prison at the US naval base in Cuba after being detained by US forces in Afghanistan in late 2001. He spoke to the press in Islamabad this week -- which he claimed flouted rules laid down by authorities that he shouldn't talk to the media or leave his northwestern hometown of Bannu without permission.
"For four to five years, I cannot move anywhere, that's what the investigating officer told me," Khan said.
Khan was released from Guantanamo early last year, then held in Pakistani prisons where he was interrogated by Pakistani agents. When he was finally freed last summer, he said he was ordered to report regularly to local authorities.
He claims he was told not to approach a mosque, a school, a hospital, or associate with young people without permission.
Brigadier Javed Iqbal Cheema, head of the crisis management cell at the Interior Ministry, said anti-terrorism laws allow agencies to monitor former detainees, but denied there were any limitations on Khan.
"There is no restriction on him to work. He can lead a normal life," Cheema said.
Some former Guantanamo detainees have become fighters in Pakistan -- or rejoined the armed struggle in Afghanistan -- since their release.
Yet according to copies of official documents provided by Khan, he is not deemed a security risk.
One Interior Ministry paper, dated May 10 last year, noted: "The suspect ... Khan was interrogated by Joint Investigation Team [JIT] staff but [they] found nothing adverse against him with regard to sabotage activities. He went to Afghanistan along with his Afghan in-law's relatives for living there and nothing else. Therefore, he is unanimously graded as `WHITE.'"
People declared "white" by security agencies are those with no cases pending against them.
Khan used to run a clinic in the northern Afghan city of Mazar-e-Sharif. He live there with his Afghan wife and six-year-old son and was detained shortly after the Taliban regime fell to US troops.
"I don't know why they kept me for four years, why they arrested me," he said, adding that he was not linked to al-Qaeda or the Taliban.
Now Khan says he has no job prospects, no money and lives with his sick parents and two sisters. He hasn't seen his wife or son since his release.
Many Pakistanis went to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban and scores ended up in Guantanamo. Cheema, the Interior Ministry official, said seven or eight Pakistanis are among about 500 detainees at Guantanamo. He said about 60 Pakistanis have returned from the prison and all have been freed to go home.
The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said it was investigating complaints about surveillance from other former detainees.
"Our view is that if surveillance has happened, it is undemocratic," said director Kamila Hyat. "This is a violation of human rights."
Khan said he never harbored any Islamic militant sentiments, but that his treatment at the hands of US and Pakistani authorities has made him bitter.
"If they are thinking that they can get peace by force, it is impossible," Khan said. "People will start hating them."
Australia has announced an agreement with the tiny Pacific nation Nauru enabling it to send hundreds of immigrants to the barren island. The deal affects more than 220 immigrants in Australia, including some convicted of serious crimes. Australian Minister of Home Affairs Tony Burke signed the memorandum of understanding on a visit to Nauru, the government said in a statement on Friday. “It contains undertakings for the proper treatment and long-term residence of people who have no legal right to stay in Australia, to be received in Nauru,” it said. “Australia will provide funding to underpin this arrangement and support Nauru’s long-term economic
‘NEO-NAZIS’: A minister described the rally as ‘spreading hate’ and ‘dividing our communities,’ adding that it had been organized and promoted by far-right groups Thousands of Australians joined anti-immigration rallies across the country yesterday that the center-left government condemned, saying they sought to spread hate and were linked to neo-Nazis. “March for Australia” rallies against immigration were held in Sydney, and other state capitals and regional centers, according to the group’s Web site. “Mass migration has torn at the bonds that held our communities together,” the Web site said. The group posted on X on Saturday that the rallies aimed to do “what the mainstream politicians never have the courage to do: demand an end to mass immigration.” The group also said it was concerned about culture,
ANGER: Unrest worsened after a taxi driver was killed by a police vehicle on Thursday, as protesters set alight government buildings across the nation Protests worsened overnight across major cities of Indonesia, far beyond the capital, Jakarta, as demonstrators defied Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s call for calm. The most serious unrest was seen in the eastern city of Makassar, while protests also unfolded in Bandung, Surabaya, Solo and Yogyakarta. By yesterday morning, crowds had dispersed in Jakarta. Troops patrolled the streets with tactical vehicles and helped civilians clear trash, although smoke was still rising in various protest sites. Three people died and five were injured in Makassar when protesters set fire to the regional parliament building during a plenary session on Friday evening, according to
STILL AFLOAT: Satellite images show that a Chinese ship damaged in a collision earlier this month was under repair on Hainan, but Beijing has not commented on the incident Australia, Canada and the Philippines on Wednesday deployed three warships and aircraft for drills against simulated aerial threats off a disputed South China Sea shoal where Chinese forces have used risky maneuvers to try to drive away Manila’s aircraft and ships. The Philippine military said the naval drills east of Scarborough Shoal (Huangyan Island, 黃岩島) were concluded safely, and it did not mention any encounter with China’s coast guard, navy or suspected militia ships, which have been closely guarding the uninhabited fishing atoll off northwestern Philippines for years. Chinese officials did not immediately issue any comment on the naval drills, but they
RSS