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| Bagram inmate's tearful return to Pakistan fails to end legal limbo | Bagram inmate's tearful return to Pakistan fails to end legal limbo |
| (about 1 hour later) | |
| The last time Waqeel Khan saw his son Hamidullah, the boy was just 14 and was leaving the family home in Karachi for a few days. | |
| Five years later, father and son were finally reunited this week amid tearful scenes in an impersonal office in Peshawar's central jail. | Five years later, father and son were finally reunited this week amid tearful scenes in an impersonal office in Peshawar's central jail. |
| Hamidullah, now an adult, was among six Pakistanis held for years without trial by the US military in Afghanistan who were secretly repatriated to their home country last month. | |
| 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. | 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. |
| Monday was the first time the six men had seen their families or even had a chance to talk to lawyers for years – more than a decade in one case. | Monday was the first time the six men had seen their families or even had a chance to talk to lawyers for years – more than a decade in one case. |
| Hamidullah's father struggled to remain composed and gave his son "the tightest hug that I could". | Hamidullah's father struggled to remain composed and gave his son "the tightest hug that I could". |
| Ejaz, a brother, was amazed by his physical change. "The first thing I said to him was the last time I saw him he was too young to grow a beard," he said. "In those days he was just a child running around." | |
| While the Red Cross facilitated regular phone and Skype calls between the men and their families, the calls were swiftly cut if they discussed their cases or living conditions in Bagram, where thousands of people have been detained since 2001. | While the Red Cross facilitated regular phone and Skype calls between the men and their families, the calls were swiftly cut if they discussed their cases or living conditions in Bagram, where thousands of people have been detained since 2001. |
| Their lawyers are angry the men were handed over to Pakistan's shadowy and much criticised tribal justice system that is only followed in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (Fata), a troubled region bordering Afghanistan. | |
| "Basically their own country did to them what the Americans did, only it was even worse," said Sarah Belal, lead council for the Justice Project Pakistan, a law firm working on their cases. | "Basically their own country did to them what the Americans did, only it was even worse," said Sarah Belal, lead council for the Justice Project Pakistan, a law firm working on their cases. |
| "When they arrived in Pakistan they were hooded, roughly treated and transported in the middle of the night. They were not told about the charges against them, their rights or allowed to see a lawyer. | "When they arrived in Pakistan they were hooded, roughly treated and transported in the middle of the night. They were not told about the charges against them, their rights or allowed to see a lawyer. |
| "What the Pakistani government is doing is flouting their legal rights." | "What the Pakistani government is doing is flouting their legal rights." |
| Although no one knows what charges they face, documents suggest they are being held under an archaic, Raj-era law called the frontier crimes regulations. The rules, which only apply in Fata, allow for preventive detention of up to three years. | |
| Whether or not they are detained or freed will be a decision taken not by a judge or a court, but by a hearing of a "political agent", one of the powerful bureaucrats who run Fata. | |
| Belal argues the men should have been presented to the high court in Lahore, which has taken a close interest in the case. | |
| Hamidullah's family say the boy disappeared after being sent from Karachi to the family's ancestral home in South Waziristan in the summer of 2008. | |
| They say he had been sent to help retrieve possessions at a time when Pakistan's army was conducting intense operations to dislodge militants entrenched in South Waziristan. | They say he had been sent to help retrieve possessions at a time when Pakistan's army was conducting intense operations to dislodge militants entrenched in South Waziristan. |
| Even after Monday's meeting it was still not clear how Hamidullah ended up in US custody. He was last seen in a town some way from the Afghan border. If he did enter Afghanistan it is not clear why. | |
| The men have been oblivious to a legal campaign waged on their behalf in Pakistan. The first they knew of their release was when a US soldier in Bagram simply informed they would soon be flown out "because your government wants you back". | The men have been oblivious to a legal campaign waged on their behalf in Pakistan. The first they knew of their release was when a US soldier in Bagram simply informed they would soon be flown out "because your government wants you back". |
| They say they were treated no better on arrival back in Pakistan, kept in dirty cells and not given access to washing facilities or clean clothes. | They say they were treated no better on arrival back in Pakistan, kept in dirty cells and not given access to washing facilities or clean clothes. |
| Their families were also not told they had returned and their whereabouts was only discovered on the orders of a high-court judge in Lahore. | |
| While control over Afghan detainees held at Bagram has been a key area of antagonism between President Hamid Karzai and the US, Islamabad has shown little interest in the approximately 40 Pakistanis held in the airbase. | While control over Afghan detainees held at Bagram has been a key area of antagonism between President Hamid Karzai and the US, Islamabad has shown little interest in the approximately 40 Pakistanis held in the airbase. |
| Although Afghan detainees were finally handed over to Afghan control last year, non-Afghans continue to be held in the prison just an hour's drive north of Kabul. | Although Afghan detainees were finally handed over to Afghan control last year, non-Afghans continue to be held in the prison just an hour's drive north of Kabul. |
| Shakeel Ahmed, the relative of another of the six detainees - a 29-year-old who disappeared in 2005 – said Pakistan must free all the men. | Shakeel Ahmed, the relative of another of the six detainees - a 29-year-old who disappeared in 2005 – said Pakistan must free all the men. |
| "It is completely illegal, he was freed from over there because there was no case against him," he said. "Now he has come here and there is still no case against him." | "It is completely illegal, he was freed from over there because there was no case against him," he said. "Now he has come here and there is still no case against him." |
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