Pakistan Accused of Illegal Detentions

Angelika Pathak, a London-based researcher for the Amnesty International speaks to media during the launching ceremony of Human Rights ignored in the War on Terror report in Islamabad, Pakistan on Friday, Sept. 29, 2006. Pakistani authorities have abducted hundreds of people, accused them of terrorist ties and held them in secret locations or handed them over to U.S. authorities for American-offered rewards, Amnesty International claimed in a report issued Friday. (AP Photo/Anjum Naveed) (Anjum Naveed - AP)

"We have earned bounties totaling millions of dollars," Musharraf wrote in his book, "In The Line of Fire," without specifying how much was paid.

Cordone said in a statement that many people detained in Pakistan ended up in secret locations or at U.S. prisons, including Guantanamo Bay and Bagram, north of the Afghan capital, Kabul.

"Hundreds of people have been picked up in mass arrests, many have been sold to the U.S.A. as 'terrorists' simply on the word of their captor, and hundreds have been transferred to Guantanamo Bay, Bagram Air base or secret detention centers run by the U.S.A.," he said. "The road to Guantanamo very literally starts in Pakistan."

Amnesty said the increase in enforced disappearances and holding of suspects incommunicado puts such detainees at "risk of torture and unlawful transfer to third countries."

Numerous detainees claimed U.S. agents were present during interrogations in Pakistan, the Amnesty report said. It also details the "unlawful transfer" of detainees into U.S. custody, including a Pakistani chicken farmer who was accused of being a deputy foreign minister for the Taliban and sent to Guantanamo.

Many innocents, including children, have also been rounded up in Pakistan under the pretext of the war on terror, the Amnesty report said.

"Some (children) were arrested alongside their adult relatives, some were themselves alleged to be terror suspects and some were held as hostages to make relatives give themselves up or confess," Amnesty stated.

The report also detailed the detentions and killings of reporters and activists allegedly targeted by Pakistani authorities. These include Hayatullah Khan, a journalist whose bullet-riddled body was found in the North Waziristan tribal region in June, more than six months after being detained.

Khan disappeared Dec. 5, 2005, days after photographing shrapnel from a Hellfire missile allegedly fired by an unmanned American aerial drone that killed a wanted Egyptian al-Qaida figure, Hamza Rabia, in the North Waziristan town of Mir Ali.

The photos sparked mass protests across Pakistan and spurred criticism of Islamabad's ties with Washington.

Members of Khan's family accused Pakistan's intelligence service of involvement in his disappearance, but authorities denied it. No one has claimed responsibility.

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On the Net:

Amnesty report: http://web.amnesty.org/library/index/engasa330352006