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| October 3, 2002 | Thursday | Rajab 25, 1423 |
Woman seeks son’s release
PESHAWAR, Oct 2: The mother of a Pakistani youth, who has been languishing in a Tashkent jail for eight years, has appealed to the government and human rights organizations to help get her son released.
In an appeal, faxed to Dawn on Monday, Bibi Sofia, mother of Kamal Hussain Bangash, said her son had got admission to Tashkent Medical College in 1994, but he had soon been detained on the charge of working for the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).
The Uzbek government alleged that Bangash, hailing from the Kurram Agency, had come to Tashkent for recruiting local nuclear scientists for his country.
Sofia said Bangash had been awarded 14 years of rigorous imprisonment without any proof. She made several appeals to the governments of Uzbekistan and Pakistan for her son’s release, but in vain.
Bangash was allegedly tortured in the jail by the Uzbek authorities, and has been seriously sick as he is not provided with proper food.
The woman said her son had recently been admitted to a hospital in Tashkent due to heart and kidney diseases. She expressed the fear that after the end of her son’s jail term, he might not be released.
The woman also said she had sent a mercy appeal to the Uzbekistan government and also approached the Pakistan embassy at Tashkent last year, but the embassy had informed her that the Uzbek government had not responded positively to her numerous pleas.
Meanwhile, the Pakistan embassy at Tashkent appealed to the Uzbek government to consider Bangash for the annual amnesty being given to the prisoners by the president of Uzbekistan on the independence day.
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