KARACHI: Man held on false spying charges freed after 10 years
By Tahir Siddiqui
KARACHI, Aug 2: It was on July 27, 1997 that 10-year-long ordeal of Bengali-speaking Abdul Hannan began. On the fateful day started his detention on charges of being an Indian spy. On July 28, 2007 he was released from the Central Prison Karachi on the intervention of the chief justice of Pakistan who took suo motu notice of his prolonged detention.
“My life has been ruined and I stand nowhere now after spending 10 long years behind bars for committing no crime,” says 43-year-old Hannan, a worker at a textile unit in New Karachi until he was arrested in Lahore.
He had gone to Lahore to visit Data Darbar but after some altercation with someone there, he was picked up by security officials. The officials took him to a nearby police kiosk. “The police implicated me in a case when I refused to pay them money for my release,” he said.
Hannan was identified by the police as Kishan Lal and accused of being an India agent. He was produced before a magistrate, who awarded Hannan one-year rigorous imprisonment for “illegally entering Pakistan”.
“I completed the term on August 25, 1998 but was not released,” he said, recalling that on Dec 12, 1998, he was produced before the Federal Review Board in Lahore and the board authorised his detention for one month for holding an inquiry into his nationality.“In April 1999, I was transferred to the Central Prison Karachi, where Indian consular officials came to see me and confirmed that I am not an Indian national,” said Hannan.
Hannan was shifted back to Lahore jail after three days. “On Dec 22, 2001 the board endorsed my identity as Abdul Hannan, son of Mohammad Anwarullah, and ordered my production before it again on January 5, 2002, but I was never produced before the board,” he said.
In fact, he was brought back to the Central Prison Karachi on Jan 1, 2002.
During his detention, Hannan wrote a letter to a prisoners’ rights organisation, Dawood Khurshid Memorial International Foundation, narrating his ordeal.
Arif Dawood of the organisation told Dawn that he visited and interviewed Hannan at the Central Prison Karachi. “I went to Godhra Camp where Hannan lived before being arrested. Residents of the locality confirmed that Hannan lived there and gave details about him,” said Arif Dawood.
The activist said Hannan had given him the phone number of his cousin, Sattar, who was living in Bangladesh. “We contacted Sattar and he sent us Hannan’s birth certificate and a letter from the local authorities in Sultanabad, the prisoner’s hometown, in Bangladesh,” said the activist.
In the meantime, Hannan decided to move the Supreme Court and he was finally shifted to Karachi on Dec 28, 2006.
Acting Chief Justice Rana Bhagwandas of the Supreme Court issued notices to the IG Prisons, Punjab, and the superintendent of the Central Jail Lahore asking them why action should not be taken against them for keeping Abdul Hannan behind bars .
In response to a court order, a report was submitted by Raja Abdul Qayyum, a law officer at the IG’s office. The ACJ termed the report ‘sketchy and incomplete’, and observed that it failed to account for the petitioner’s detention from Jan 2, 2002 to Dec 1, 2005. “There is no order of detention by any competent authority and the jail authorities, prima facie, acted in an illegal manner.”
KARACHI, Aug 2: It was on July 27, 1997 that 10-year-long ordeal of Bengali-speaking Abdul Hannan began. On the fateful day started his detention on charges of being an Indian spy. On July 28, 2007 he was released from the Central Prison Karachi on the intervention of the chief justice of Pakistan who took suo motu notice of his prolonged detention.
