Barret, amid tight security was deported from Lahore airport and is travelling to New York on a PIA flight. PHOTO COURTESY: AP
Barrett was shifted amid tight security first from Adiala Jail in Rawalpindi to Islamabad and then to Lahore Friday night.
This is the second time that he has been expelled from the country. Barret was also arrested by Pakistani law enforcing agencies (LEAs) in 2011 from South Punjab when he was taking pictures of sensitive government installations and buildings. He was then deported and blacklisted.
However, 32-year-old Barrett successfully obtained a four-year visa from the Pakistani consulate in Houston, Texas. According to reports, he got this visa within 24 hours of applying after the consulate failed him to recognise him as a blacklisted person.
Later on August 6, he also managed to dodge the immigration system of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) and sneaked into Islamabad. However, the FIA later on arrested him from a guest house in capital where his in-laws had arranged accommodation for him. He was handed over to the FIA on a 14-day judicial remand in Adiala Jail. However, on Friday (August 19) a special court cleared the deportation process ordered by the interior ministry.
According to sources in the FIA, Barrett had arrived in Pakistan to permanently settle here. He is married to a Pakistani woman named Binosche Khan, who is the daughter of a local lawyer, Abdul Rehman Swati. His wife and two children, a daughter and a son, are still in the United States.
Published in The Express Tribune, August 21st, 2016.
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