AWOL in Afghanistan: Some 676 Pakistanis presumed dead, says NGO

Relatives suspect most of them were listed as Afghan Taliban supporters.

ISLAMABAD:

Some 676 Pakistanis reported to be missing in Afghanistan since 2001 are believed to have died there, said Prof Abdullah Khalil, the managing director of non-profit organisation Lego-Academic & Social Services (LASS). 

Prof Khalil, who established LASS after retiring as head of the Government Area Study Centre in Peshawar, told The Express Tribune that he has been in search of the 676 Pakistani citizens since the past decade but has remained unsuccessful. He compiled a list of the missing persons after being informed of their disappearance by their friends and families.

Although they are presumed to be no longer alive, the circumstances that led to the deaths are so far unknown to the LASS, he added. Neither were they able to ascertain the purpose of the missing persons’ visit to Afghanistan but their families and friends suspect that they had joined the Afghan Taliban to fight against the US occupation.

Despite visiting various Afghan prisons, Prof Khalil remained unsuccessful in gathering any information about the missing Pakistanis, most of whom belonged to Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and Fata.

Besides meeting Pakistani diplomats in Kabul, the professor has also held meetings with Afghan officials from the ministries of foreign affairs, justice and interior to discuss the matter.

Jailed abroad

According to the professor’s research, since the past seven years, another 1,000 Pakistani citizens are languishing in Afghan prisons, including the Pule-Charkhi Prison and the notorious Bagram Prison, which is controlled by the US military.

Many of them were arrested for violating immigration laws, while some were implicated in cases of spying, terrorism and drug-smuggling.

Pakistani labourers, in the main, are detained for exceeding their stay in the country, said the LASS chief, who also provides free legal assistance to such Pakistanis.

An official in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Home Department pinned the blame on Afghan contractors, who, he claimed, recruit Pakistani labourers without visas and hand them over to the police when they demand their salaries.

Under the Afghan visa, Pakistanis are entitled to only 30 days in Afghanistan, while Afghans receive four to six month multiple visas from Pakistani diplomatic missions.

Bagram and Pule-Charkhi

A senior official of the Pakistan foreign office had told The Express Tribune last year that the number of Pakistani prisoners in Bagram Prison was 32. However, Khalil said his organisation’s estimates were much higher than the official figures.

A Foreign Office official claimed that Islamabad was negotiating with Kabul for the release of the 32 Pakistani prisoners in Bagram.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 12^th, 2013.