Focus on Pakistani prisoners

Wajid Ali is barely 18 years old. He's back in Pakistan after four and a half months in northern Afghanistan fighting for the Taliban, Ali is lucky to have made it back. Hailing from the small scenic village of Cheena in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province (NWFP), he comes from the same area where hundreds of other locals are missing - most believed to be either dead or prisoners in neighbouring Afghanistan. "Our fate is in the hands of Allah, I went to Jihad [Holy War] and will do so again if needed," he told IRIN, sitting in his mud-walled house in the poverty-stricken village where most depend on agriculture for their living. Ali, accompanied by 17 elders of his village, had sneaked into Afghanistan along with thousands of Pakistani volunteers in early November across the Nawagai pass in Bajuar Agency. "Soon after we arrived in [Afghanistan's eastern city of] Jalalabad, we were sent to northern Afghanistan, where we were defeated and held hostage in the Khinjan District of the Baghlan Province," he said, adding he was kept well by his captor, Shah Seyyed, a local Northern Alliance (NA) commander, who even prevented Ali from being kidnapped by another local warlord for ransom. While his whereabouts were unknown to his family for two months, Ali eventually met an Afghan who was a refugee in Buner, and through him sent a letter to his family. Ali is the only fighter from his village to return. Three of his friends remain in a prison in Baghlan's provincial capital, Pol-e Khomri, while another two were being held by a local commander in Khinjan. Nobody knows about the rest - presumably they were killed. Ali had the good fortune to be released and was the safely guided back home by two Afghans whom he paid about US $230. According to a report released in January by the US-based activist group, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), the conditions in northern Afghanistan's prisons were "deplorable". During the PHR delegation's week-long inspection of Shebarghan prison in the northern province of Jawzjan, investigators found overcrowding, nonexistent sanitation, exposure to winter cold, inadequate food and no medical supplies, resulting in epidemic illness and deaths. PHR concluded conditions at the prison were a grave violation of international standards for the treatment of prisoners. Thousands of Pakistanis crossed over into neighbouring Afghanistan in the aftermath of the US-led coalition's launched attack on Al-Qaeda and the Taliban early last November. A large number of them came from Malakand division and were mostly followers of a local hardline Islamist group, Tanzim-e Nefaz-e Shariat-e Muhammadi (TNSM). A large number of them remain missing, months after the demise of the Taliban and the end of most of the fighting in Afghanistan. In the nearby village of Koga, also housing a large number of Afghan refugees, Muzammil Khan, a TNSM activist who also ventured into Afghanistan, told IRIN that "all the ulema (Islamic clerics) issued a fatwa [religious decree] declaring that the war in Afghanistan was a jihad [holy war], and we went there to fulfil our religious obligation". Khan remained in eastern Afghanistan for three weeks facing US bombing, and eventually returned after the Taliban defeat. Khan added about 120 men from Buner District had gone to Afghanistan but only 70 had returned and most of them were now in the custody of Pakistani authorities. One of Khan's friends died in fighting, some 12 were missing and nobody knew whether they were dead or alive. "The rest are languishing in different prisons, some of them even detained by local warlords," he said. Khan maintained that about 1,100 TNSM activists were either missing or in captivity all over Afghanistan. Asked what they were doing to secure the release of their companions, he replied: "Most of our leaders, including TNSM's founder, Maulana Sufi Muhammad, are in Pakistani jails. We have nothing to do with politics. We went into Afghanistan to fulfil our sacred religious obligation by waging jihad against infidels." Although the Pakistani media has been reporting that Pakistani prisoners were being ransomed back to their families, one Afghan who has managed to secure the release of some prisoners denied the claim. Haji Nur Ahmad Din, an Afghan refugee in the Koga refugee camp, recently went to Uterchi in the Nahrin District of northern Afghanistan to secure the release of Pakistanis there from a local commander in exchange for about $700, which the latter had spent on hosting them for months. Afrasiab Khattak, chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), told IRIN that in the post-11 September scenario, pro-Taliban sympathies persisted for a long time in Pakistan, affecting public opinion. These feelings prompted many men to fight alongside the Taliban. "Of course, some of them were battle-hardened Islamic militants, but a large number of volunteers, mostly from Malakand Division were ordinary people," he claimed. Many of these religious recruits now languish in prisons across northern Afghanistan. "The TNSM activists from Malakand were instigated by mullahs, and they had no experience in fighting," Khattak maintained. Comprising six districts, Malakand Division was merged with Pakistan in 1969. Over the last decade TNSM played a major role in shaping the area's politics. Reaffirming his concern over the fate of Pakistani prisoners in Afghan jails, Khattak demanded the immediate release of those of them who were not hardcore militants. "These were people brainwashed in madrasahs and jihadi outfits," he said. "HRCP wants these prisoners to be at least treated according to the Geneva Convention on prisoners of war," he added. HRCP's concerns were echoed by Amnesty International, who, in a statement on Monday, demanded humane treatment for prisoners in Afghanistan and Camp X-Ray. An HRCP delegation went to Afghanistan's capital Kabul in January to discover the fate of some 1,000 Pakistani prisoners. "The Afghan government listened to us, but besides them the International Security and Assistance Force (ISAF), the US-led coalition forces were involved in screening the prisoners," Khattak said, adding that this delayed their release. "Many warlords are holding prisoners, but the accusations that they are demanding ransom cannot be ascertained," he noted. Khattak called on the Pakistani government to adopt a more proactive role in seeking the release of these prisoners. "We were told in Kabul that professional terrorists and Al-Qaeda associates would face trials. Those who are not found guilty of heinous crimes will be released," he said. Meanwhile, Afghanistan's interim leader, Hamid Karzai, reiterated such a stand during Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf's first-ever visit to neighbouring Afghanistan in early April.