Most Guantanamo detainees clueless about their crime

65 of 70 Pakistanis sent back, reasons for their capture as unclear today as they were at the time of their detention.

KARACHI:

“Who is responsible for all this pain caused to me, America or Afghanistan?” Transcripts of tribunal hearings at Guantanamo feature similar refrains.

After the 9/11 attacks, over 70 Pakistanis were picked up and transferred to the US. Sixty-five have been sent back after being held for three to four years, but the reasons for their capture are as unclear today as they were at the time of their detention.

Whether it was a case of being at the wrong place at the wrong time or ethnic profiling, Pakistani detainees appeared to be clueless about what their exact ‘crime’ was.

Many were held for their links to militant organisations, whose role in encouraging Pakistanis to join the Afghan war is highlighted in the transcripts of tribunal hearings, released by the New York Times.

Abid Raza, who was recruited by the Jamaat-e-Islami, believed he was going to Afghanistan “to fight Hindus” and “had been tricked”. Ijaz Khan had travelled to Afghanistan to fight with the Taliban against the Northern Alliance, but said that he did not know that the Northern Alliance was also made up of Muslims. He was released three years after being captured.

In the case of Fazaldad, the US had information that he had “attended training at the Tablighi Jamaat training camp” in Raiwind and had learnt how to shoot a rifle. While Fazaldad admitted to learning how to use a rifle, he said it was for self-defence.

Detainees were held for having attended training at camps run by the Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) in Muzaffarabad and Balakot respectively.

A number of detainees said they had never heard of al Qaeda until they came to Guan­tanamo. One was questioned about why he had travelled on the same airline as Taliban and al Qaeda members.

Other cases highlight how the government detained and transferred Pakistanis. Abdur Rahman, a chicken farmer who lived near Chaman, was visited by Pakistani authorities in 2001, who wanted to search his house for stolen artifacts. He told the Combatant Status Review Tribunal that the police wanted a bribe, and then tried to frame him by claiming he was someone else.

Rahman was bundled into an aircraft and was then told his name was not Sayed Abdur Rahman but Abdur Rahman Zahid. The latter was the name of a high-ranking Taliban official. Over the years, his alleged position in the Taliban changed several times. Ironically, Rahman had only visited Afghanistan once in his lifetime to attend a funeral. He was released four years after his capture.

Others, such as Abdul Halim Sadiqi, were victims of bad timing. Sadiqi was believed to have a network of 10 madrassas and a force of 2,000 fighters. He was actually a small-time shopkeeper who went to Afghanistan to bring back his brother, who had gone to fight with JeM.

While several detainees were in their 30s, 16-year-old Mohammad Omar from Miru Khan, Larkana was also held at Guantanamo. Omar was convinced by a fellow student at his religious school in Shahdadkot to ‘run away to Afghanistan to receive combat training’, which Omar understood was similar to hand-to-hand combat training he had seen in films. Omar travelled to Kandahar, but after aerial bombarding of the area began, he decided to leave with fleeing Taliban members. However, they were turned over to the US by a group who offered them food.

Key Pakistani al Qaeda operatives and supporters such as Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Ammar al Balochi and Saifullah Paracha are still being held at Guantanamo Bay. Under harsh interrogation, they have revealed the extent of their involvement with al Qaeda.

However, the tens of Pakistanis who only knew of chicken farms and grocery stores have returned home after years of incarceration, with nothing to show for their ‘missing’ years.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 28^th, 2011.