Not home yet: ‘Bagram detainees missing after release’

Petition filed in LHC for release of their whereabouts by government

ISLAMABAD: A rights group said on Monday that whereabouts of 23 Pakistani nationals, 9 of whom were freed from the US detention center at Bagram in Afghanistan 50 days ago, are still unknown.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced on September 20 that 14 more Pakistanis had been released from indefinite detention at Bagram torture cell and repatriated to Pakistan.



“There was no further information released by the government on the identity and the present location of these 14 detainees,” said the Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), which has been representing the Bagram detainees in the Lahore High Court since 2010.

“This brings the number of former Bagram detainees held incommunicado to 23. Nine Bagram detainees repatriated in August have yet to get access to their families and lawyers,” the group’s spokesman, Shahab Siddiqi said.

A petition has been filed in the court of Justice Mansoor Ali Shah of the Lahore High Court to compel the government to realize its obligations and release details on the missing 23 Bagram detainees, he said.

Sarah Belal, Executive Director of JPP, also expressed concern at the disappearance of the freed Bagram detainees.

“It has been more than 50 days since the tranche of 9 detainees were released from Bagram, but they are yet to meet their families or have access to their lawyers. This raises grave concerns for their safety. We are once again in the Lahore High Court in the hopes that it will compel the government to uphold the fundamental rights of the 24 that remain in incommunicado detention,” she said in a statement.

Since November 2013, 39 Pakistanis have been released from Bagram and repatriated to Pakistan. Of these, 15 detainees have been allowed to return home to their families, while 24 remain in the custody of the Pakistani authorities.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 14^th, 2014.