Another Musharraf Conspiracy?

[Bull]

Pakistan's 'extraordinary prisoner'
By Syed Shoaib Hasan
BBC News, Islamabad



News of Mohammad Naeem Noor Khan's release from custody in Pakistan has attracted a great deal of attention.
But then Mr Khan was no ordinary prisoner.

At the time of his arrest three years ago, he was accused of being a key link between al-Qaeda leaders and militants.

"But now any charges against him are gone with the wind," said his lawyer, Babar Awan, after his client was released for lack of evidence.


All this is a far cry from July 2004, when Mr Khan was arrested amid much fanfare and widely labelled as the "information technology chief of al-Qaeda in Pakistan".

That same description was apparently used by none other than President Pervez Musharraf in his autobiography.

While the president never used Mr Khan's name, his choice of words tally with all that is known about Mr Khan.

The book says he was born in Karachi and graduated from a local engineering university with a bachelor's degree in computer engineering.

It goes on to say he was recruited into al-Qaeda by Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, ran al-Qaeda's information technology wing after Mohammed's arrest, and was himself arrested in Lahore on 21 July, 2004.

'Vital breakthrough'

The arrest was hailed as a "vital breakthrough in the war against terror" at the time.

And it is true to say that today, questions still remain as to what exactly were Mr Khan's connections with al-Qaeda, if indeed he had any.

Intelligence officials are in no doubt. They say that a laptop recovered from Mr Khan at the time of his arrest contained information about several terror plots.

They say it also contained details of targets such as financial buildings, railway networks and airports in the UK and US.

Along with other information gleaned from the suspect's interrogations, security agencies said it helped them foil several terror plots.

They say the information also led them to arrest several alleged al-Qaeda operatives, including Ahmed Khalfan Gailani.

Mr Gailani, chief suspect in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in East Africa, was arrested in Gujarat in north-eastern Pakistan.


There has always been a cloud of controversy over his exact status


Information provided by Mr Khan also reputedly led to the arrests of 13 al-Qaeda suspects in the UK, in July 2004.

President Musharraf said in his autobiography that the arrest was one of the major hidden successes of the "war on terror".

With this background, it seemed that Mr Khan was destined to spend the rest of his life in a Pakistani or American secret prison.

At best, it seemed likely he would be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

But there has always been a cloud of controversy over his exact status.

The press has been full of conspiracy theories alleging Mr Khan's connections with foreign and domestic intelligence agencies.


Amid the flurry of speculation, no-one is sure where he is now.

While the news of his release was made public on Monday, he was actually freed at least a month earlier, in mid-July.

Among the various theories about his whereabouts, the most popular is that he has moved abroad.

Some analysts say that Mr Khan's release confirms that he was co-operating with Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) and was kept in custody for his own safety.

'Pivotal role'

They say the al-Qaeda network has now been all but broken in Sindh and Punjab provinces.

"In Karachi especially, the last major al-Qaeda operatives left were arrested in 2005," says an ex-intelligence official.

"In this regard many believe Mr Khan played a pivotal role.

"It's a murky tale in which there are no clear answers to any of the key questions."

BBC NEWS | South Asia | Pakistan's 'extraordinary prisoner'

 

[Bull]

Such a crucial guy just walks out of jail. What intel did Mushraff have when he claimed Khan to be the IT chief, how come that very evidence wasnt aepted by the court, ie if any evidence existed at all. This could have been another Mushraff coup to claim victory in WoT.

Speak about Muslim victimisation.

 

[Awesome]

Such a crucial guy just walks out of jail. What intel did Mushraff have when he claimed Khan to be the IT chief, how come that very evidence wasnt aepted by the court, ie if any evidence existed at all. This could have been another Mushraff coup to claim victory in WoT.

Speak about Muslim victimisation.

What are you rambling about?

 

[Awesome]

He probably exchanged this pivotal information for a Presidential pardon. Seen it happen many times in Hollywood movies. The law exists in reality too, I wonder if it was applied here.

 

[Bull]

He probably exchanged this pivotal information for a Presidential pardon. Seen it happen many times in Hollywood movies. The law exists in reality too, I wonder if it was applied here.

If its for a presidential pardon then why was the case in court? Presidential pardon is a constitutional power, so if its granted then there is no need to hide it.

This is a clear case of Muslims being victimised right inside a Muslim land.

 

[yarmook]

To Bull!
Atleast we are far better off being savaged by hindu extremist who wont allow our brethern muslims to slaughter and eat cow just because they cant afford to see it! I consider we are far better off being first class citizen in our country and not being discriminated as being ISI agent for just being a muslim in reality or in bollywood movies.......

Throw your muslim victimization theory somewhere else.

To Asim,

Please bro tell these people to atleast put same title as per the content! The news article rambles something else, the title say something else. these people display there utmost level of confusion even in the artciles, i dont understand what is the relation of bringing mushy into Naeem Khan's case and his book! It gives a picture like Musharaf had interrogated this person him self and had first hand info for his autobiography

FOR ALLAH;s sake dont just get illusioned what ever is in the news article.

 

[Bull]

To Bull!
Atleast we are far better off being savaged by hindu extremist who wont allow our brethern muslims to slaughter and eat cow just because they cant afford to see it! I consider we are far better off being first class citizen in our country and not being discriminated as being ISI agent for just being a muslim in reality or in bollywood movies........

First class citizen, meaning being cvaught and sold to the Amerikkans for cash by GOP, meaning blown apart by a suicide bomber bcoz ur a shia/sunni....

Throw your muslim victimization theory somewhere else..

Say that to those who whine about it, not me.

To Asim,

Please bro tell these people to atleast put same title as per the content! The news article rambles something else, the title say something else. these people display there utmost level of confusion even in the artciles, i dont understand what is the relation of bringing mushy into Naeem Khan's case and his book! It gives a picture like Musharaf had interrogated this person him self and had first hand info for his autobiography

FOR ALLAH;s sake dont just get illusioned what ever is in the news article.

There was sucha rule, but its not implemented now a days.

 

[alamgir]

First class citizen, meaning being cvaught and sold to the Amerikkans for cash by GOP, meaning blown apart by a suicide bomber bcoz ur a shia/sunni.

why you not look this before crying against pakistan......INDIA
REPUBLIC OF INDIA
Head of state: APJ Abdul Kalam
Head of government: Manmohan Singh
Death penalty: retentionist
International Criminal Court: not ratified

Perpetrators of past human rights violations continued to enjoy impunity. Concerns grew over protection of economic, social and cultural rights of already marginalized communities. Human rights violations were reported in several states where security legislation was used to facilitate arbitrary detention and torture. A new anti-terror law, in place of the repealed Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), was being considered in the aftermath of multiple bombings in Mumbai and elsewhere. The Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA), long criticized for widespread abuses in the north-east, was not repealed. Justice and rehabilitation continued to evade most victims of the 2002 Gujarat communal violence. Human rights legislation was amended undermining the powers of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC). New laws to prevent violence against women and guarantee rural employment and right to information had not been fully implemented by the end of the year. Socially and economically marginalized groups such as adivasis, dalits, marginal/landless farmers and the urban poor continued to face systemic discrimination and loss of resource base and livelihood because of development projects.

Background
An agreement reached with the USA in March gave India access to strategic nuclear material and equipment for civilian purposes, and signalled closer Indo-US ties.

Hundreds of people were killed in bomb attacks during the year, including 21 in the north Indian city of Varanasi in March, more than 200 in multiple bombings in Mumbai in July, and 37 in Malegaon, Maharashtra state, in September. Concern about such attacks continued to dominate peace talks between India and Pakistan, which made little progress. The two countries agreed to set up an “anti-terror mechanism”, the details of which were not spelled out. Little progress was made in continuing dialogue over Kashmir, Nagaland and Assam.

Rising Maoist activity in some states added to security and human rights concerns. Several states, including Orissa and West Bengal, witnessed protests by people whose livelihoods were threatened by ongoing and proposed fast-tracked development projects. High suicide rates by debt-ridden farmers were recorded in some states, including Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala.

Following renewed fighting in Sri Lanka, around 10,000 Tamil refugees fled the island by sea and arrived in Tamil Nadu, already home to over 100,000 refugees; about 50,000 of the refugees were reportedly in camps with inadequate facilities.

Security legislation
India continued to play no direct role in the US-led “war on terror”. However, demands for new anti-terror legislation in place of the repealed POTA grew after the bombings in Mumbai and Malegaon.

Following the bomb attacks, hundreds of people, mostly Muslims, were arbitrarily detained for short periods in Maharashtra. Sixteen people were charged under the state Control of Organised Crime Act. Local courts acquitted three of the 16 for lack of evidence.

Implementation of security legislation led to human rights violations in several states. An official panel report acknowledged widespread abuses of the AFSPA in the north-east but drew criticism for ignoring impunity issues and recommending use of the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act. Protests demanded repeal of the AFSPA.

At least 400 people remained in jail under the repealed POTA and several continued to face special trials whose proceedings fail to meet fair trial standards. The few convictions related to serious and high-profile cases. Official committees reviewed a majority of pending cases. However, the review process was questioned, with Gujarat and other states rejecting the committees’ key recommendation to drop POTA charges.

Jammu and Kashmir
Politically motivated violence slightly decreased, but torture, deaths in custody, enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions continued to be reported. Some six deaths in custody, 38 enforced disappearances including several juveniles, and 22 extrajudicial killings were reported in 2006. Identity-based attacks by Islamist fighters continued.

• In May, 35 Hindus were killed in Doda and Udhampur districts. Government officials accused Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based armed Islamist group, of carrying out the killings to derail the peace process.

• In October, 17-year-old Muhammad Maqbool Dar of Pakherpora died in custody after he was questioned by the Rashtriya Rifles, an army counter-insurgency force. A magistrates’ inquiry and an internal army inquiry were ordered.

Impunity for human rights violations by state agents continued, although in a few cases criminal action was initiated after years of delay.

b In April, the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) indicted five army officers for the extrajudicial killing of five villagers at Pathribal in March 2000. The officers were charged with fabricating evidence to support their claim that the men were foreign fighters killed in an “encounter” with security forces. The officers had earlier claimed that the men had killed 35 Sikhs at Chittisinghpora four days before the “encounter”. When local villagers protested in Brakpora that the five men were innocent villagers, the army opened fire, killing 10 protesters. An inquiry into the Pathribal incident stalled when it was found that DNA samples had been tampered with.

A new report indicated that some 10,000 people had been victims of enforced disappearance since 1989. The Association of the Parents of Disappeared People reported that the authorities failed to provide information to the families of the victims about their whereabouts. Outstanding concerns over the existing powers of the state Human Rights Commission were heightened in August when its chairperson resigned over the “non-serious” attitude of the state government towards human rights violations.

Impunity
Little progress was made in cases relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi which followed the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by two of her Sikh bodyguards and led to a massacre of nearly 3,000 Sikhs. In 2005 the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government promised to reopen the latest of many inquiries following the forced resignations of two leaders of the ruling Congress party, which heads the UPA. A judicial commission had concluded that there was credible evidence of involvement in the attacks against the two leaders who resigned.

In Punjab, a majority of police officers responsible for serious human rights violations during civil unrest between 1984 and 1994 continued to evade justice. In response to 2,097 reported cases of human rights violations during this period, the NHRC ordered Punjab state to provide compensation in 1,051 cases concerning people who died in police custody and appointed a commissioner to decide on compensation for 814 additional cases. CBI findings on these deaths in custody were not made public and the NHRC did not actively pursue with the judiciary the outstanding issues of impunity.

2002 Gujarat violence
Justice continued to evade most victims and survivors of the 2002 violence in Gujarat in which thousands of Muslims were attacked and more than 2,000 were killed. Rehabilitation continued to be slow. Members of the Muslim minority in Gujarat reportedly faced difficulties in accessing housing to rent and public resources. An official panel concluded that over 5,000 displaced families lived in “sub-human” conditions.

There continued to be few successful prosecutions relating to the violence. However, 1,594 cases closed by the state police were reopened on the orders of the Supreme Court and 41 police officials were being prosecuted for their alleged role.

New evidence on the riots emerged, in the form of details of mobile phone calls made between those leading the attacks and politicians belonging to the then ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), a Hindu nationalist party. The judicial commission appointed in 2002 by Gujarat’s state government to investigate the attacks had not completed its work by the end of the year.

The Gujarat High Court set aside the Union government order appointing another commission to investigate the cause of the 2002 Godhra train fire which killed 59 Hindu pilgrims. The Court said there was no need for a second commission into the fire, which triggered attacks on Muslims and the subsequent violence.

Six key cases relating to killings and sexual assault of Muslim women in which complainants had sought transfer to courts outside Gujarat were still pending before the Supreme Court at the end of the year.

• In March, a Mumbai court sentenced nine people to life imprisonment and acquitted eight others after a retrial in the Best Bakery case, relating to the massacre during the 2002 violence of 14 people in Vadodara city. In 2003, a local court had acquitted all the accused, but the Supreme Court transferred the case to Mumbai. The Mumbai court later convicted Zahira Shaikh, and another female relative of the victims, of perjury after they “turned hostile” and retracted their statements, reportedly under pressure.

The UPA government’s draft bill to prevent communal violence was still pending before parliament. It had been introduced in 2005 following widespread criticism of the BJP-led government for failing to halt the Gujarat violence. Meanwhile, two other states ruled by the BJP – Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh – passed laws criminalizing religious conversion in certain circumstances, inviting criticism that they were acting against freedom of choice of religion.

Chhattisgarh
There was rising violence in the Dantewada area between Maoists and members of the anti-Maoist Salwa Judum, a militia widely believed to be sponsored by the Chhattisgarh state government. Civilians were routinely targeted by both sides and 45,000 adivasis were forced to live in special camps putting them at increased risk of violence. The Chhattisgarh authorities enacted legislation banning media coverage of certain human rights violations.

• On 28 February, suspected Maoists set off a landmine blowing up a truck; 26 people were killed and 30 injured.

Economic, social and cultural rights
Around 300 million people remained in poverty despite implementation of new legislation guaranteeing minimum annual employment for the rural poor. New legislation on the right to information, seen as a means to empower the poor, was not fully implemented; the Union government and state governments were reluctant to disclose crucial information about their decision-making processes.

Concerns grew over protection of economic, social and cultural rights of already-marginalized communities (including adivasis) amidst fears of unchecked exploitation of their resource base by the government and businesses. Several states witnessed periodic protests against acquisition of land and other resources for mining, irrigation, power and urban infrastructure purposes. Such developments were associated with forced evictions, harassment, arbitrary detentions, excessive police force and denial of access to justice.

• In January, 11 adivasis were killed when police fired into demonstrators protesting against the displacement that would be caused by the proposed Tata Steel project in Orissa.

• In April, police used excessive force against activists staging a protest fast in Delhi against displacement caused by the Narmada dam project; some protesters were detained.

• In July and September/October, activists protesting against the Uttar Pradesh government’s decision to acquire farmland for the Reliance gas project faced police harassment and detention.

Bhopal
Twenty-two years after the Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) pesticide plant in Bhopal leaked toxic gases that devastated countless lives and the environment, survivors continued to struggle for adequate compensation, medical aid and rehabilitation. After a sustained campaign, including a survivors’ march from Bhopal to Delhi in April, the government agreed to clean up toxic waste, provide safe drinking water and set up a commission for rehabilitation of the victims. However, there was little progress on the ground on these initiatives by the end of 2006. In August, monsoon rains caused flooding in areas around the UCC plant, raising fears of contamination of groundwater. UCC and Dow Chemicals (which took over UCC in 2001) continued to reiterate that they had no responsibility for the gas leak or its consequences.

Violence against women
Legislation passed in 2005 to ensure comprehensive protection of women from all forms of domestic violence, including dowry deaths, sexual assault and acid attacks, came into effect in October. It was yet to be fully implemented by states.

Traditional preference for boys continued to lead to abortions of female foetuses, despite the ban on pre-natal sex determination since 1993. Only a few people were convicted of violating the ban, a fact criticized by the Supreme Court. Protests were staged in Punjab and Rajasthan over the slow pace of investigation into such cases.

Many of the abuses suffered by Muslim women in Gujarat in 2002 fell outside the definition of rape in national law. This continued to hamper victims’ quest for justice.

Two Supreme Court directives offered advances for victims of rape. The Court directed that lack of medical evidence would no longer be grounds for discounting testimony, and that the identity of victims should remain confidential in court judgments.

Death penalty
At least 40 people were sentenced to death in 2006; no executions took place. Comprehensive information on the number of people on death row was not available.

Anxiety rose over the fate of clemency petitions after the Supreme Court ruled that it could review executive decisions on such petitions. The ruling followed fierce debate triggered by the clemency petition submitted on behalf of Mohammed Afzal, who was sentenced to death on charges relating to the armed attack on India’s parliament in December 2001.

Other issues
There were concerns that amendments to the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, would weaken the operating framework of the NHRC which already had no mandate to investigate abuses by armed forces and complaints more than a year old. The amendments also allow for transfer of cases from the NHRC to state-level commissions which continued to be starved of resources; 11 of the 28 states had yet to set up such commissions and five of those operating had no chairpersons.
thereport.amnesty.org/eng/regions/asiapacific/india-56k