LAHORE, July 6: Pakistanis deported from Italy said on Sunday that the Italian police had subjected them to severe torture during interrogation.

The deportees while talking to reporters said that the Italian police had interrogated them on suspicion of having links with a terrorist organization or Al-Qaeda. They claimed that some 500 to 800 Asians, including Pakistanis, were languishing in different Italian jails. They said that an NGO had helped them speed up their cases, otherwise they might have been behind bars for some more months.

Family members of a few deportees came to the airport to receive their loved ones. They were reluctant to talk to the reporters because of fear of interrogation by the airport authorities.

On their release by the FIA authorities, none of deportees had a single penny to reach home. Passengers, porters and people, who came to receive or see off their relatives, pooled money for them.

The deportees, mostly aged between 25 and 35, went to Italy in 2002-03. Almost all of them went to Libya on ‘genuine’ travel documents from Karachi and Islamabad from where they had tried to enter Italy through ferries by paying hundreds and thousands of rupees to travel agents.

They said they paid hundreds and thousands of rupees to travel agents both in Pakistan and abroad to earn a livelihood in Italy.

Gauyoor Husain, 27, said that he left for Libya in March after paying Rs350,000 to agent Younis in Rawalpindi.

“After reaching Libya, I paid another 150 Euros to an agent introduced by Younis. The agent sent me on a ferry to Italy where he was caught by the authorities,” he said. He claimed that another ferry with 218 passengers on board, including one of his fellow, drowned the same month.

Father of a three-year old girl, Gauyoor said that he was jobless in Pakistan. He said in search of a better future he sold his wife’s jewellery to bear expenses.

Bakhtawar Cheema of Lahore, Tariq Mahmood of Gojra and Mazhar Husain of Gujrat had similar stories to tell. They either borrowed the money or sold out their properties to go to abroad.

The chartered plane that brought the deportees returned back with Italian policemen. Only five Italian officials stayed here for two days.

Italian FIA officer Luigi Mragio, who supervized the operation, told reporters that they had to handcuff the deportees to ensure maximum security on board. He, however, denied that they had interrogated any deportee on suspicion of links with Al-Qaeda.

He also refused to give information about the other 80 Pakistanis which were also scheduled to reach here.— Reporter