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| October 06, 2006 | Friday | Ramazan 12, 1427 |
Guantanamo man’s re-arrest challenged
PESHAWAR, Oct 5: Fresh detention of a former Guantanamo Bay prisoner, Abdur Rahim Muslim Dost, was challenged before the Peshawar High Court on Thursday.
According to a habeas corpus petition, filed by Muslim Dost’s brother Sayed Mohammad, he was picked up by personnel of the Crime Investigation Department (CID) and an intelligence agency from Academy Town on Sept 29.
Muslim Dost and his other brother Badruzzaman Badr were arrested and handed over to US. They remained in the Guantanamo Bay prison for a few years before they were released.
A few months ago, they co-authored a book Da Guantanamo Mate Zolanae (The broken shackles of Guantanamo).
They criticised the role of Pakistani agencies in the war on terror and wrote in detail how they were tortured in the custody of Pakistani and US authorities.
The federation of Pakistan through secretary, Defence Division, the state through the advocate-general and the NWFP Inspector-General of Police have been named respondents in the petition which has been filed by the vice-chairperson of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Kamran Arif, on behalf of the petitioner.
The petitioner has sought the production of the detainee before the court and requested it to declare the detention without lawful authority and of no legal effect.
He has also sought interim relief and requested the court to direct the respondents not transfer the detainee from the territorial jurisdiction of the high court.
According to the petition, Muslim Dost is an Afghan writer and poet who, during the jihad, edited several magazines published from Peshawar by an Afghan religious organisation. The petitioner said the detainee had authored 37 books.
After the end of the Afghan war, the petitioner said, the detainee along with his brothers set up a gemstone business in Peshawar while continuing his literary activities. During the jihad the detainee had developed differences with people running the aforesaid Afghan organisation.
When the war on terror started, this organisation levelled allegations of nefarious activities against the detainee and his younger brother Badruzzaman Badr.
The petitioner said that Muslim Dost and Badruzzaman were arrested by the military authorities on Nov 17, 2001 at their home in Peshawar. They were handed over to the Americans on Feb 8, 2002 and reached the Guantanamo detention facility on May 1, 2002 after remaining in custody at Bagram and Kandahar.
The petitioner said that Badruzzaman was released on Sept 24, 2004 and Muslim Dost on April 20, 2005, after the American investigators found them innocent.
On Sept 29, he said, Muslim Dost was coming out of a mosque near his home when he was taken into custody. He said the arrest had been made in violation of article 4 of the Constitution and added that the detainee had not been produced before any magistrate as required under the law.
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