I WAITED for a few days before I could write about Ahmed Rabbani’s piece ‘Wasting away’ (Sept 22). I don’t know how to express the wrenching inside and the anger I have felt towards both our government and the US.

An innocent man going about his ordinary life in Karachi gets apprehended for crimes unknown to him and is transported thousands of miles, first to be tortured in Afghanistan and then to the infamous Guantanamo Bay prison, which has devastated many Muslim lives in the name of terrorism.

After losing 14 years and over 50 per cent of his weight for merely being a Pakistani Muslim, has Mr Rabbani not suffered enough? Or is our government and the powers that be willing and happy to provide the US fodder for their inhuman trials and training to the prison staff?

If so, perhaps many of us should give ourselves up as we share the same ‘crimes’ as Mr Rabbani.

If Pakistan and the US have an ounce of commitment to human rights and fairness, Mr Rabbani should be immediately released and rehabilitated within his family; compensation should be paid to him and both governments should apologise to him publicly.

The ministry of human rights and the foreign office should take notice and attend to this matter on a priority basis.

Nikhat Sattar

Karachi

Published in Dawn, October 4th, 2020