News Headlines
 
 
More News: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27
 

Guantanamo Bay Returnee Seeks to Sue U.S.
By Asif Farouqi, IOL Pakistan Correspondent

ISLAMABAD, December 28 (IslamOnline) - The only Pakistani prisoner to return home from U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay Cuba is seeking legal advice to sue the U.S. government for compensation against his “illegal and unlawful” detention at the U.S. facility for almost one year.

Ansar Burney Welfare Trust has approached the Camp X-Ray returnee in his hometown in Pattan, in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, to offer him free legal aid in case he decides to sue the U.S. government for compensation.

“I am innocent. This is what I was told by the U.S. authorities upon my release,” 51 year old Muhammad Sagheer said in an interview. “But they never said sorry neither they offered anything to compensate me for they trouble caused to me during the interrogation at Camp X-Ray”.

Sagheer said he was given a hundred dollar bill at the time of his release on 27th October and was told that another hundred dollars will be received in Pakistan. “This is not enough” he says with a grim face. “The pain and miseries I went through during the year-long interrogation should be compensated in a proper way as they do in American legal system” Sagheer said with a deep look of determination in his eyes.

Sagheer has a number of terror tales to tell about his captivity in Cuba and in Kandhar and Shibarghan, Afghanistan. But he says the problem before him now is how to fix his Saw unit which has been serving as the sole bread-earner for his 20-member family. The Saw went out of order during his absence. None of his 18 children were able to get it fixed. They simply did not have enough money.

It was a routine preaching trip for the veteran preacher Sagheer except that it was this time in a foreign country, Afghanistan. Sagheer has been preaching the basic teachings of Islam mostly to his Muslim countrymen for years. This time, he was asked to go to Afghanistan for the same purpose and was arrested by the forces of Uzbek Warlord Dostam in Kunduz when it fell to the Northern Alliance in October.

Giving his account of the treatment given to the inmates at Guantanamo Bay, prison Sagheer said the only luxury available to the prisoners is a brief walk in the open twice a week. The prisoners were supposed to be allowed this “recreational” activity for up to 15 minutes two times a week. “But this seldom happened. The prisoners were never allowed to remain for full 15 minutes in the ground. We were forced back to our cells after 10 minutes or even less time in the ground,” Sagheer said.

Initially, the treatment meted out to the prisoner was cruel. All of the prisoners were forcefully shaven their heads and beards and were not allowed to say prayers, recite Quran or indulge in any other kind of religious activity or duty. But when most of the prisoners went on hunger strike which continued for over a month, some of these “facilities” were allowed to the inmates.

Most of the time of a prisoner, sagheer said, is spent in the eight feet by eight feet cell. Meals are served in the cells. The prisoners are allowed out of their cells for very few activities, including bathing (every second day), recreation (twice a week) and interrogation (very often). Whenever a prisoner leaves his cell, his wrists and ankles must be shackled. The wrist cuffs are attached to a belt at the waist to prevent any swinging of both arms together (although this waist restraint is removed at shower time). Any prisoner outside his cell is escorted by at least two guards.

Sagheer said he went to the interrogation tent for many times. “Everytime they show me some pictures of bearded persons and ask about them” Sagheer said.

Sagheer said the meals served to the inmates are not enough. “The meals may carry enough calories but never could satisfy our hunger” he added.

Oman deports over 600 Pak prisoners
India Daily; Nov. 11, 2004

Oman has deported over 600 Pakistanis, who were detained a few months ago for their alleged entry into that country for seeking employment, a human right group said on Wednesday. The 602 Pakistanis, who arrived in Karachi today after four days of sea journey, were smuggled into Oman by human traffickers, rights group ''Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International'' said. Another group of 73 illegal immigrant Pakistanis, released from Jails in Muscat, were on their way by sea and will arrive home on Friday, the group said. They were detained while trying to enter illegally into Oman via sea route to seek lucrative jobs.

Ansar Burney announced digging of deep wells in drought affected areas:

KARACHI: Renowned human and civil rights activist and Chairman, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, Ansar Burney, Advocate has said that Pakistan is once again facing acute drought conditions in Thar, Umerkot and certain other areas of Sindh and Balochistan, and has warned that some areas could face a famine.

Ansar Burney said under these circumstances, to please Almighty Allah and to save the dying humanity, he has announced for the digging of a further 15 more wells in the most affected and far flung areas of Sindh and Baluchistan.

“Wells have run dry, streams and rivers are parched, so Ansar Burney Trust has decided for the deep digging of new wells. These wells will help the most affected humanity in getting the desperately needed water for themselves and for their animals” He added.

After touring affected areas, experts from the international relief organization, Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, which is preparing to launch a relief efforts again, said that a wide band stretching from southern Afghanistan to Pakistan and Gujarat in India had been badly affected by the severe drought. Many of the areas have been parched of rainwater for four consecutive years, with an almost total lack of rain during the past winter.

“Hundreds of innocent and poor human beings have died and thousands of people have migrated from these dry-lands in search of food and water. Some in the camps worry about those they left behind. It is the need of the hour to help this affected population and vulnerable communities through both long and short rehabilitation plans” He said.

"The situation is very, very bad with wells drying up in affected areas of Sindh and Baluchistan, thousands of livestock animals already dead and people forced to sell their remaining animals.” Ansar Burney further added.

Nearly 10 million head of livestock had died in the drought last year. The arid countryside is littered with the carcasses of dead animals. Officials say most of the livestock that has survived is diseased.

"Livestock is the main source of income for these people. If their livestock dies, so does these peoples source of income" Mr Burney said.

"People are running from one place to another in search of water. Small children are dying. If they are not helped, many more will die". Ansar Burney said.

He requested the well off people to come forward and strengthen the hands of Ansar Burney Welfare Trust in this regard.

Ansar Burney Trust can be contacted at: 6 Hassan Manzil, Arambagh Road, Karachi. Pakistan. Phone: +92 21 2623382, Fax: + 92 21 2623384. Mobile: + 92 300 8243459.

"Inshallah, we will do everything we can to help these people in this time of need. With the digging of these wells, we hope to help a lot of people survive and stand up on their feet. If their livestock lives, they can again generate income and start to take care of themselves" Mr Burney added.

Ansar Burney announced that the digging of deep wells Will start from the second week of April. But he explained that more help would be needed to start more projects and send more relief to these people. He asked for people to join hands with Ansar Burney Trust in this mission to help crying humanity.

Iran hands over 110 Pakistanis to Taftan Levies
Pakistan Times Baluchistan Bureau Report

CHAGAI: Iranian authorities after arresting 110 Pakistani nationals for illegally entering into Iran handed them over to Levies authorities at Pak-Iran border at Taftan on Friday.

Levies officials at Taftan say, 66 of them have been handed over to Federal Investigation Agency for investigation while remaining 44 persons are still in the custody of Levies who would also be entrusted to FIA after initial investigation.

Meanwhile, Pakistani authorities at Taftan have pushed back five Bangladeshi nationals to Iran who were trying to enter Pakistan without any traveling documents.

27 more Pakistanis released from Yemen return home

Meanwhile in Karachi, 27 more Pakistani crewmen on slave labourer, who were stuck at Aden Sea, since last one and a half year and recently got released by the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International, from the clutches of human smugglers, returned on Friday. The authorities in Yemen found their traveling documents as genuine.

Those who came back home in this batch are belonging from Gujrat, Gujranwala, Lahore, Mandi Bahauddin, Karachi, Peshawar and other parts of Pakistan. It is more that all of their expenses were born by the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust. These 27 Pakistani crewmen were stuck in Aden Sea since last one and a half year and rescued only due to the personal hectic efforts of ‘human rights Angel’ Ansar Burney, head of the Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International.

These Pakistanis were on slave labour camps in deep sea, where they spent their times in miserable conditions. To satisfy their hunger they were drinking seawater after boiling it and taking the salt out from the seawater. They were starving, drinking rusty water and has no medical facilities on the Ship at sea port.

According to details after hue and cry from these innocent crewmen, the Yemeni Agents even stopped the supply of food and they do not have anything to eat for the last few months. These Pakistanis were going to die if the human rights Angel Ansar Burney to them would not provide help.

India Airlifting Prisoners from Afghanistan: Reports
By IOL South Asia Correspondent

NEW DELHI, July 30 (IslamOnline) - Pakistani, Kashmiri and Arab prisoners presently incarcerated in Afghanistan prisons are being allegedly airlifted by India, Pakistani newspapers have claimed. Quoting diplomatic sources, the reports said that India has airlifted a third group of Pakistani, Kashmiri and Arab prisoners from Afghanistan's capital city of Kabul on July 16 by a special aircraft.

Indian newspapers have so far refrained from publishing the reports, although the prominent daily The Times of India, Monday, July 29, carried excerpts from a Pakistani newspaper, The Frontier Post. The same newspaper in its July 8 issue had earlier carried excerpts of a similar alleged airlift of 30 Pakistani prisoners published in another Pakistani daily, The News.

Reports said that on earlier occasions two batches of prisoners were respectively transferred to India from Afghanistan.

The first batch of prisoners to be allegedly taken to India comprised 110 Pakistanis, who were taken into custody after the fall of the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. Pakistan's popular daily Dawn (December 20, 2001) quoting two top Pakistani officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that "Afghanistan's northern alliance handed over 110 detained Pakistani Muslim militants to India, and that "India then airlifted them to New Delhi for interrogation."

According to a Pakistani human rights activist quoted by The News (Dec. 20, 2001), India sent an aircraft to Afghanistan's Bagram air base, 40 kilometers north of Kabul, on December 5 last year to pick up the Pakistanis, who had been detained by the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. Before picking the prisoners, the Indian Air Force planes flew over the Central Asian Republic of Tajikistan, the reports alleged. The newspaper report said that the reported airlifting took place when the conference on future political structure of Afghanistan was being held at Bonn in Germany. Reportedly this was the same plane which brought the family of Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah from India to Afghanistan.

In June, 30 Pakistani prisoners in Afghanistan along with some Arabs were allegedly shifted to India from northern Afghanistan town of Kunduz via Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe. Two helicopters were reportedly sent for the purpose under arrangement between the Defense Minister of Afghanistan, Gen. Fahim, and India's premier intelligence agency, RAW, according to Balochistan Post (June 19, 2002). Allegedly they were taken to a Central Asian country from where they were shifted to India.

Officials at India's Defense Ministry and at its air force have said that they had no information on the accusation, according to the Dawn report (Dec 20, 01).

India has maintained good and steady relations all along with the leaders of Northern Alliance. It has been quite close to them during the Taliban regime in Afghanistan, and lent them full moral and material support to fight the Taliban regime. Even after the fall of the Taliban, India is continuing with its support and is trying to make its political presence felt in Afghanistan, now being ruled by Hamid Karzai of Northern Alliance.

Pakistani human and civil rights activists have raised concern over India's reported actions. Ansar Burney, noted human and civil rights activist, expressed apprehension and said that India would use the prisoners in a manner so as to defame Pakistan in the eyes of the world, even when it would not be involved in disruptive activities inside India.

Mr. Burney said, "I fear that India would present the prisoners as saboteurs by creating incidents of violence in its own country and would attempt to portray Pakistan as agent provocateur. After committing the acts, they would release the photographs of these prisoners to the international media for their so-called involvement in various self-created terrorist activities and incidents of violence in India and in its part of Jammu and Kashmir, aimed at giving credibility to their claims that Pakistan is a terrorist state."

Northern Alliance may have tried to return its due to India for its continued and unstinted support during the Taliban era. The leaders in the Northern Alliance harbour deep aversion for Pakistan, and therefore their cooperation with Indians.

But all along, the entire episode raises some disconcerting questions. Why should India be interested in getting some Pakistani prisoners from Afghanistan? Why should the Afghan captors hand them over to India and not Pakistan? What are the likely adverse consequences and implications for Pakistan? Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema, noted Pakistani columnist, asked in the News, a reputed Pakistani newspaper.

Guards use dogs to torture an Iraqi prisoner at Abu Ghraib prison

















Path Out of Poverty Is Cut Short by Antiterror Snare
May 10, 2004
By SALMAN MASOOD

RIRKA BALA, Pakistan, May 5 - Sitting in the compound of her mud house in this dusty farming village in eastern Pakistan, Bibi Bakhtan, 61, wiped dust from a framed photograph of her dead son and posed a universal question.

"Can mothers forget their sons?" she sighed.

Surrounded by grandchildren and a few ambling goats, her voice quivered with grief as she talked about her son, Muhammad Riaz.

Just over two years ago, Mr. Riaz, then 30, and five other Pakistani men and an Indian, were shot dead in Macedonia by the local police. At the time, the police said the men were Al Qaeda-linked terrorists plotting to attack Western
embassies in the capital, Skopje.

This month, the Macedonian government disclosed that a police inquiry had found the slain men innocent of those charges. They were not terrorists, but rather illegal immigrants seeking a better life in Europe. And their deaths, the
inquiry found, was an effort to advance Macedonia's status in the campaign against terrorism.

"It was staged, a monstrous killing of seven economic migrants," said Mirjana Kontevska, a spokeswoman for Macedonia's Interior Ministry.

The March 2002 killings, she said, were part of an attempt by the interior minister at that time, Ljube Boskovski, and four police officers to "present themselves as participants in the war against terrorism and demonstrate Macedonia's commitment to the war on terrorism."

Interviews with the families of the slain men reveal one common wish: to earn a better living by going abroad. All had found illegal passage to Europe before falling prey to what Macedonian authorities called a "meticulous plan to promote
Macedonia as a player in the fight against global terrorism."

Life moves slowly here in Rirka Bala. Trucks and tractors move ploddingly on patchy roads that pierce fields of wheat and sugar cane and link small mud and brown brick houses scattered among the fields.

The inhabitants are small farmers who toil under the scorching sun. Villagers say few here can afford an education.

But among the mud houses every now and then stands a grand multistoried house with huge front pillars and marble finishing. Local residents say these towering houses have been built with money sent back by Pakistanis working in the United States or in Europe as laborers, cab drivers or technicians.

The affluence of some, it seems, has aroused envy in the hearts of many.

Muhammad Riaz belonged to a caste known as Mussalis, Hindu converts to Islam who do menial jobs in the villages of Punjab. He, too, dreamed of having a big house, like the ones he saw in his village and neighboring towns, relatives
said. He thought going to Europe was the only way he could fulfill this dream.

And so his family borrowed $1,550 from a local landlord, paid $850 to a travel agent to arrange a fake visa and passport, and gave the rest to Mr. Riaz for travel expenses.

Trying to get into Europe illegally is common here. "There are so many people who have gone abroad on fake documents and are earning now," said Mr. Riaz's mother, Bibi Bakhtan. "We didn't think it was wrong. Everybody was doing it."

During the late 1970's and early 1980's, it was relatively easy to get a visa for the United States and parts of Europe, village residents said. But as Western countries toughened their immigration policies, the human trafficking business flourished in this district, Mandi Bahauddin, and in neighboring Gujrat.

Gujrat, in particular, is notorious as a human trafficking hub. Over the past decade, Pakistani news media reports suggest, Gujrat's traffickers have sent at least 200,000 Pakistanis to Greece, Italy, Spain and other countries. One popular route has been through Iran, Turkey and Greece into other European countries, according to local news media reports.

In November 2001, Mr. Riaz went to Turkey via Iran, according to his family. "Riaz called us from Turkey in early 2002 and told us that he was fine," said Mehr Din, his father.

That was the last word his family received from him.

"We didn't hear anything else until one day his body came in a coffin," said Mr. Din, 70, his wrinkled, sun-bronzed face contorting with pain. Having placed all their hopes and borrowed money on Mr. Riaz's journey abroad, the family expects to be in debt for the next seven years.

According to Macedonian authorities, the six Pakistani men - Mr. Riaz, Omar Farooq, Syed Bilal Hussein Shah, Asif Javed, Khalid Iqbal and Ijaz Ahmed - were in Bulgaria hoping to make their way to Western Europe when they were lured across the border into Macedonia and housed by Macedonian police who then shot
them.

After the killings, Macedonian officials displayed uniforms and badges bearing the insignia of the National Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanian rebel force that fought government troops. Ethnic Albanian politicians denied any links to
the slain men.

The Indian killed with the Pakistani men was a Sikh whose identity is still being sought by Ansar Burney, a Pakistani civil rights activist.

Among the victims was Ijaz Ahmed, 21, who according to his brother, Azhar Javed, a 33-year-old cab driver from the village of Sivia, wanted to go to Europe to help his family. Mr. Ahmed hoped to help the family escape from the poverty that had ensnared it for generations.

Sitting glumly with his 66-year-old mother, Ghulam Fatima, who sobbed at each mention of her son, Mr. Javed said that many people from Sivia were working abroad.

"Ijaz wanted to earn money like them, so he could arrange for the weddings of his four sisters," Mr. Javed said. "He wasn't a terrorist."

In the nearby village of Sohawa Diloana, Muhammad Mehdi, 47, a retired army wireless radio operator, said he thought sending his 18-year-old son abroad would improve the family's living conditions.

His son, Asif Javed, left Pakistan in August 2001. His father last heard from him when he telephoned from Turkey in early 2002. Eight weeks later, news of his death wrecked his father.

"Now I tell people, 'Eat dirt but never send your children abroad,' " he said, sitting in the village cemetery. He adjusted a garland on his son's grave, and prayed.

Sale of boys as camel racing jockeys in UAE
Reported by Ashok Tuteja
Nov 05, 2000

Dubai: Despite a ban on the use of young boys as jockeys in camel racing, young children are still being brought into the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by unscrupulous agents from the Indian sub-continent for this traditional
sport.

... Abu Dhabi police have rescued two Pakistani boys, who were kidnapped from their home in Dera Ghazi Khan in North West Frontier Province (NWFP), some three months ago.

The two boys--Shajar (six) and Shajawar (four)-- were brought illegally to the UAE via Iran by two unscrupulous agents named Gul Ahmed and Sharo Mai on forged passports and with false birth certificates. In the UAE, the two boys were sold to a Pakistani agent for 20,000 dirhams (about Rs 2,40,000) each.

... Ansar Burney, a Pakistani lawyer and human rights activist, who runs the trust, came to the UAE in search of the two boys.

... Burney, ... we got in touch with the Pakistani Embassy, which was quick to enlist the support of the UAE interior ministry ... Abu Dhabi police responded positively by sending two CID Officers along with us to the camp.
The boys were handed over to us without further hassle by the camp authorities ... He said Shajawar, the younger boy, was now bed-ridden as he had suffered serious injuries in both his legs after a fall from a camel's
back.

Police have reportedly taken into custody a Pakistani expatriate for questioning but the couple, who brought the two boys into UAE posing as their parents, are absconding.

PAKISTANSKI 'TAEKWONDO TERORISTI'

Prva vijest na našim stranicama, Taekwondo teroristi, govori o tretmanu reprezentacije Pakistana u Latviji. Da vas podsjetimo: 10 pakistanskih sportaša došlo je koncem prošle godine na medunarodni taekwondo turnir u Rigu, gdje su im domacini poklonili mjesec i pol zatvorskog smještaja pod optužbom za terorizam. Pola godine kasnije saznajemo da ošteceni sportaši u meduvremenu od latvijske vlade sudskim putem traže kompenzaciju za pretrpljenu blamažu.

Pakistanski taekwondo sportaši su u Rigu stigli 15. studenoga sa legalnim vizama, prethodno ispunivši sve tražene formalnosti. Bez problema su odsjeli u lokalnom hotelu i nastupili na taekwondo turniru, a njihov Križni put poceo je nakon što su na aerodromu obavili rezervacije za povratak u Pakistan: 21. studenoga su odvedeni iz hotela i uhapšeni pod optužbom za zlocin koji niti su izvršili, niti planirali, i za koji nisu postojali nikakvi materijalni dokazi. U zatvoru su proveli više od mjesec dana, a pušteni su tek kad je u Rigu doputovao i za njih se zauzeo pakistanski odvjetnik Ansar Burney, koji je poznati borac za ljudska prava i predsjednik Ansar Burney Welfare Trust International.

Odvjetnik Ansar Burney preuzeo je vodenje parnice kojom za oštecene sportaše od vlade Latvije traži zadovoljštinu. Tvrdi da su uzrok hapšenja predrasude i da predstavlja diskriminaciju temeljenu na "sumnjivoj" religiji i nacionalnosti. Zbog što uspješnijeg provodenja parnice pomoc je zatražio od vlade Pakistana i od njezine ambasade u Latviji.

Ansar Burney: "Nevini sportaši bili su zatvoreni i još uvijek trpe posljedice tog stravicnog iskustva - boravka iza rešetaka, gdje su pretrpjeli psihicku torturu i bezrazložno maltretiranje. Nepoštenim djelovanjem latvijske Vlade i njezinog Ministarstva unutrašnjih poslova takoder su ukaljani image i ime Pakistana. Ti sportaši sada zahtijevaju i zaslužuju kompenzaciju i pravdu za nanesenu im nepravicnost. (...) Na aerodrom u Rigi stigli su sa vizama koje su vrijedile do 23. studenog. Za 22. studeni su kod Aeroflota rezervirali povratne karte za Pakistan, preko Rusije, ali su dan prije polaska uhapšeni pod optužbom za terorizam. Premetacinom njihovih soba i prtljage nisu nadeni nikakvi sumnjivi materijali. Latvijski su ih autoriteti optužili zbog puke slucajnosti da su trebali putovati istim zrakoplovom u kojem su bili i košarkaši Izraela. (...) Ovaj bismo slucaj mogli voditi i kao nelegalno hapšenje i zatocenje na Medunarodnom sudu pravde ili pred Komisijom za ljudska prava Ujedinjenih naroda..."

Pouka našim putnicima: Istina je da su sportaši ambasadori svoje države, ali ipak valja pripaziti kako se putuje.

Ljube Boškovski naredio ubojstvo
Sreda, 16 Jun, 2004 - 02:09 PM CET

Makedonija se ispricala Pakistanu zbog toga što su 2002. godine njezine snage sigurnosti ubile šest Pakistanaca, nakon što su lažno optuženi zbog urote vezane za napad na veleposlanstvo SAD-a, objavilo je pakistansko ministarstvo vanjskih poslova.


Službena isprika i obecanje izvršenja pravde obiteljima žrtava uslijedili su nakon optužbi za ubojstvo podignutih protiv trojice bivših policijskih zapovjednika, dvojice vojnih dužnosnika i poslovnog covjeka.

Šestorica Pakistanaca i Indijac, svi imigranti u Makedoniji, ubijeni su nedaleko od Skopja u ožujku 2002. godine. Sigurnosni dužnosnici tvrdili su da se radi o teroristima koji planiraju napade na americka i druga veleposlanstva.

Dužnosnici u Skopju su 30. travnja priznali da su ljudi bili nedužni i optužili bivšeg ministra unutarnjih poslova Ljubu Boškovskog da je narucio ubojstva želeci se dodvoriti Sjedinjenim Državama i pokazati kako je Makedonija odlucna da se bori protiv terorizma. Izdan je i nalog za uhicenjem Boškovskog koji, medutim, ima i hrvatsko državljanstvo jer je bio oženjen Hrvaticom te trenutacno živi u Hrvatskoj, koja ga zbog državljanstva ne može izruciti Makedoniji.

Pakistanski veleposlanik u Turskoj Sher Afghan boravio je ovog tjedna u Makedoniji, gdje se susreo sa zamjenikom ministra unutarnjih poslova Hasbijem Likom; tada je i došlo do službene makedonske isprike.

Pocetkom mjeseca pakistanski aktivist za ljudska prava Ansar Burney izjavio je da ce tužiti makedonsku vladu Medunarodnom sudu pravde u Haagu i tražiti po dva milijuna dolara za obitelj svake žrtve. Medutim, Lika je rekao Afghanu da je kompenzacija moguca tek nakon što se optužbe formalno potvrde na sudu.

Napomena: Izvor: Dnevnik

 
   
Copyright © 2004 Ansar Burney Welfare Trust