KOHAT, March 19: All contacts between the families of 48 Pakistani Al Qaeda suspects now detained at Camp X-ray, Cuba, through the Red Cross have ceased since December last, the father of one of the suspects have complained.

Azeem Khan, who lives in a small town along the border between the settled area of Bannu district and tribal area of North Waziristan Agency, 185km south-west of here, hoped that his son would return soon.

He regretted that for the last two months he had not heard anything about his son except whatever appears in the newspapers about the plight of the detainees in Cuba.

In his last letter his son had asked for the photographs of his family which they handed over to the officials of the Red Cross in Peshawar for delivering it to their son in Cuba.

He regretted that all the letters which they received had been censored and limited to maximum of eight lines which was not unjustified.

He lamented that the Pakistani authorities never contacted them to inform them about the fate of his son or tell them that at what stage his case was because we had been hearing that all the Pakistanis had been proved innocent and would be released soon.

His 75-year-old mother, Sardara weeps day and night for the safe return of her son.

Essa Khan, 28 who fell in love with an Afghan lady during his studies in Peshawar and migrated to Shabarghan after marrying her was arrested from his clinic by the forces of the Northern Alliance on the charge of spying for Pakistan after Sept 11 attacks.

Now his wife Faheema is afraid of returning to Pakistan fearing that she might be arrested and ferried to Cuba along with her two-year-old son Ahmad Tariq, Azeem Khan, father of the doctor told Dawn.

OPIUM: Police here on Wednesday recovered 14kg more opium from a cement-loaded truck seized on Monday last carrying 142kg of charas and 70kg of opium.