KARACHI: British authorities are investigating the claims of the 28-year-old British woman of Pakistani origin that she was abducted from Islamabad airport ten years ago and kept captive at different “camps”.
Naheeda Hussain, who has been reunited with her family in Glasgow, says she was abducted “by men in light blue uniform” from inside the Islamabad airport in April 2000. A little over ten years later she was released on June 1, 2010.
“My life has been torn apart. I feel scared all the time,” says Naheeda. Speaking to The Express Tribune from Glasgow she says she was about to board a Manchester-bound flight when the men pulled her out of the queue. She was travelling alone.
Naheeda claims she became unconscious after she drank a glass of water the uniformed men offered her. “I really don’t know what happened next and how they managed to whisk me away from the airport. But it happened and the next thing I knew I was in a dark and empty room where I was beaten up.”
Naheeda’s uncle Masood also went missing from the airport on the same day. According to the family, Masood had gone to the airport to help Naheeda after she called her father in Glasgow via cell phone to say that she was being pulled out of the queue.
Her abductors, she claims, shifted her from camp to camp, which were manned by heavily armed men, over the period of ten years during which time she came in contact with many other prisoners like her. “They were dozens of men, women and children there,” she says, and all of them were forced to work on cleaning and oiling guns. She said she doesn’t know whether the other prisoners had also been kidnapped, adding that she saw her uncle at the camps too but was unable to communicate with him.
“Any attempt to converse with people would result in beatings,” Naheeda says. “We were beaten repeatedly over the years. Once they even tortured my uncle in front of me.”
In spite of the difficulties, Naheeda says she managed to get acquainted with a young girl, Aasia. “I would talk [to her] every opportunity I would get.” She says there was a foreign woman also among the captives.
Though Naheeda says she understands a little Urdu and Punjabi, she could not initially understand what her captors were saying. She points out that she never said she was held in Swat or Waziristan as is being reported in the media, adding that she often heard gunfire and explosions and that the captors would give her the Holy Quran to read.
During the first weeks of her captivity, Naheeda says she was told by her captors that a demand for ransom had been made to her family and she would be released soon after they get the money. However, as time passed by, she began to think that she might never be released. “I thought they would just kill me at some point. But I didn’t dare ask my captors why I wasn’t released yet. No one could dare ask them anything at the camps,” she says.
Meanwhile, Naheeda’s family members say the ransom demand was not made until recently. “We didn’t hear from her captors until just a few weeks back,” says Rizwan, Naheed’s brother. The family received a phone call in the last week of May, informing Naheeda’s mother that her daughter was alive, but in order to secure her release they should come to Pakistan with Rs10 million. However, money was not paid and Naheeda and Masood were dropped in Dera Ghazi Khan.
Faisal Jamil, who runs an Asian newspaper in Scotland, says the family got in touch with him after they were contacted by the captors and sought his help. “Naheeda’s family didn’t contact any authorities. They had lost faith in the Pakistani authorities and the British foreign office over the years,” says Jamil.
“After Naheeda was recovered, we arranged for her stay at a safe location in Islamabad until she was able to get a passport to travel back to the UK. Former MP Mohammed Sarwar and I were approached by Naheeda’s brother to get help in getting the travel documents, which the British High Commission was initially refusing to give,” he adds.
Spokesperson for the British High Commission in Islamabad, George Sherill, says the commission issued an emergency passport to Naheeda “as soon as we could”. He said British authorities was looking into Naheeda’s claims and would also get in touch with Pakistani authorities.
The spokesperson for Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) in London, said that the Strathclyde Police is heading the investigation and is being assisted by the agency. “The SOCA has offices worldwide and we have an office in Islamabad as well. We are assisting the British police in getting in touch with authorities in Pakistan,” he says.
Meanwhile, Masood is in Pakistan but refuses to disclose his location. “I’ve gone through hell in the last 10 years,” he says. Masood says he wants justice for the wrongs he and Naheeda suffered. “I’m in touch with a lawyer and very soon I will file a petition in the courts about our abduction.”
Rizwan too says that the family would pursue the case in Scotland and Pakistan at the highest forums, including courts. “We want justice. We want to know how someone could just disappear from inside the airport like that.”
Federal Investigations Agency officials too question how someone could have been picked up from inside the airport. “There are several security agencies working at airports and one can’t just abduct people from there,” says Director Immigrations FIA Zafar Iqbal Awan in Islamabad. “Apart from the presence of intelligence agencies such as the Inter-Services Intelligence and Intelligence Bureau, there is the Airport Security Force, Anti-Narcotics force, customs’ wing and guards of the Civil Aviation authority.”
Law enforcement authorities, however, say they would assist investigations into the case whenever asked. As yet, though, they haven’t been asked to look into the claims, they say.
Syeda Sultana Rizvi from the Pakistani embassy in London says the British authorities are yet to formally ask Pakistan for assistance in investigations. She said if approached, every possible help would be provided.
Published in The Express Tribune, June 21st, 2010.
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