Hamidullah Khan | |
---|---|
Born | 1995 (age 28–29) Waziristan |
Citizenship | Pakistani |
Detained at | Bagram Theater Internment Facility |
Status | no charge extrajudicial detention |
Hamidullah Khan (born 1995) is a citizen of Pakistan who was held by the United States in its Bagram Theater Internment Facility in Afghanistan.[1][2][3] United Kingdom human rights group Reprieve reports he was just fourteen years old, when he was picked up in Pakistan.
Hamidullah Khan, for example, was picked up while travelling from Karachi to his father's village in Waziristan to salvage the family's possessions during the ongoing military operation. He was just fourteen. He is currently being held at Bagram and his family are desperate for his return.
Daniel Morgan, writing for Newsweek Pakistan, reported that Hamidullah's family received a letter from him in 2010, where he said he had been cleared for release by a Bagram enemy combatant review.[1]
Human rights workers were able to initiate a court inquiry in Lahore for Hamidullah and six other Pakistani men.[3][4] The Pakistani government was ordered to send officials to interview the men.
Khan and five other men were transferred from Bagram on December 5, 2013.[5] According to Al Jazeera quoted Khan's account of what American officials told him when they released him: "'We're sorry', he recalled. 'We could not establish any link [between] you [and] bad guys.'" [6]
References
- 1 2 Daniel Morgan (2011-08-19). "The Hard Cell: Activists make it more difficult for Islamabad to ignore the plight of Pakistanis detained in Afghanistan". Newsweek Pakistan. Archived from the original on 2012-01-17. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
Hamidullah Khan disappeared in July three years ago. The then 14-year-old was on the road from Karachi to his home, outside Ladha in South Waziristan, after a military operation against the Taliban had concluded there. Hamidullah had set out to retrieve and truck back pieces of furniture for his family's port-city dwelling. Somewhere between Dera Ismail Khan and Ladha, he vanished. His parents haven't seen him since.
- ↑ "Bagram Airbase". Reprieve. 2011. Archived from the original on 2011-12-01. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
Hamidullah Khan, for example, was picked up while travelling from Karachi to his father's village in Waziristan to salvage the family's possessions during the ongoing military operation. He was just fourteen. He is currently being held at Bagram and his family are desperate for his return.
- 1 2 Paddy McGuffin (2011-11-21). "Bagram detainee case reaches court". Morning Star. Archived from the original on 2012-06-14. Retrieved 2011-11-30.
All seven are Pakistani citizens who are being held indefinitely at Bagram without access to lawyers and without having been informed of the evidence against them.
- ↑
Katharine Houreld (2012-07-22). "Lost boys of Bagram still live in prison's shadow". Reuters. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
Hamidullah vanished in 2008 after his father sent him to collect the family's belongings from their village near the border. On his way home he telephoned from a bus stop, but the next thing his family knew, he was in Bagram.
- ↑
Jon Boone (2013-12-05). "Bagram inmate's tearful return to Pakistan fails to end legal limbo". The Guardian (UK). Retrieved 2017-05-26.
Despite being on home soil, they remain imprisoned under laws that critics say are just as inadequate as those used to hold them for years at Bagram, the huge US airbase in Afghanistan that uses detention policies similar to those at Guantánamo Bay.
- ↑
Jenifer Fenton (2016-07-20). "Pakistanis describe 'hell' of Bagram base detention: Dozens of Pakistanis held by the US in Afghanistan were repatriated, but struggle to put their lives back together". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 2017-05-26.
While as a Bagram prisoner Khan had even fewer rights than his counterparts in Guantanamo, his transfer - and that of other Pakistanis like him - took place with little political pushback, something that has plagued US President Barack Obama who, with just months left in office, is still trying to get out of the detention business.