KOHAT, Nov 11: The parents of a Pakistani homeopathic doctor, who is languishing in the Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and whose  wife and minor son are living  in  Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan, have appealed to the Afghan government to hand over their daughter-in-law and grandson to them.

Essa Khan, 28, who had married an Afghan woman in Peshawar and had gone to Shabarghan with his bride, was arrested from his clinic by the Northern Alliance troops on charges of spying for Pakistan after the fall of Taliban rule last year. Later, he was shifted to Cuba for interrogation.

Azeem Khan, the father of Essa Khan, told Dawn that Essa’s wife Faheema feared that if she returned to Pakistan she would be arrested and ferried to Cuba. She fears for her two-year-old son Ahmad Tariq, Azeem Khan said.

Azeem Khan, who lives in a small town astride the border between the settled area of Bannu district and tribal area of North Waziristan Agency, 215km south west of here, is hopeful that his son would return soon.

Azeem Khan says he had to rely on whatever visitors tell him about the plight of the detainees in Cuba.

He said that in his last letter, Essa had asked for the photographs of his family, which they handed over to the Red Cross in Peshawar for onward delivery to his son.