SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 15: The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), a leading civil rights organization, in a special report, highlights the plight of five Pakistanis who were deported from US
after they were caught in a government dragnet that swept up hundreds of Muslims indiscriminately after 9/11.
The ACLU report documents the stories of five Pakistanis - Ansar Mahmood, Anser Mehmood, Khurram Altaf, Naeem Sheikh and Noor Hussain Raza - and six Arabs who were deported after a long detention in harsh conditions although they were not charged with any crimes related to terrorism.
With the help of the Pakistan Human Rights Commission, the ACLU located some of the deportees and went to Pakistan to hear their stories. After nearly three years in detention, Ansar Mahmood, 24, was deported to Pakistan on Aug 12, 2004.
He was arrested a few weeks after 9/11, for taking pictures of a water reservoir in New York. No terror-related charges were ever filed against Mahmood. But authorities discovered that he signed documents for a Pakistani couple with expired visas.
Anser was one of more than l,100 Muslim immigrants taken into custody by the US authorities in the days and weeks immediately after 9/11. He was deported to Pakistan in May 2002, after eight months in prison.
Khurram Altaf, 36, a taxpaying US resident for 18 years, was detained and deported to Pakistan without ever seeing a judge. He was forced to leave behind his 9-year-old daughter Anza, a US citizen who needs medical care not available in Pakistan. He was deported in mid-2002. His wife and two other children joined him a year later in Rawalpindi
Noor Hussain Raza, 63, was detained for a period of thirty-eight days from December 19, 2001, to January 26, 2002. He was never brought before a judge. Naeem Sheikh was detained for a period of one month, in March 2002.
Prior to his arrest, Sheikh lived in the United States for almost eight years. He hoped to correct his immigration status while he was detained, but he was deported to Pakistan on March 31, 2002.
