Accusing Pakistan of "selling" terror suspects to the US, global human rights body Amnesty International has asked President Pervez Musharraf to come clean on "disappearance" of hundreds of such detainees that have been tortured and kept in secret locations.
In its 106-page report, Amnesty said "a large number of war on terror detainees have been literally sold into US hands by 'bounty hunters' who have received cash payments in return, typically $5,000.
"These arbitrary detentions (not ones involving other cases where international arrest warrants and rewards exist) have bypassed normal law enforcement procedures. It is believed, for example, that the majority of Guantanamo prisoners were sold into US custody," the London-based body alleged.
It said "some of the detainees have later re-surfaced at the US military detention Centre at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, but the whereabouts of countless others remain unknown."
Amnesty International UK Director Kate Allen said "despite secrecy and officials denials, it is clear that the road to Guantanamo starts in Pakistan. President Musharraf must come clean about Pakistan's 'disappearances'."
He said in many cases "there is evidence of the direct involvement of US operatives (CIA and FBI) in Pakistan's wave of disappearances and other human rights abuses, including rendition and torture."
In some cases children as young as 10 have been illegally apprehended, including being sent to face indefinite detention at Guantanamo Bay, he alleged.
Noting that cash inducements did not in themselves contravene international law, the human rights body said it was "extremely concerned at a pattern of arrests based on little more than the allegations of those who stand directly to benefit from them. The report gave details of torture endured by many detainees, including a 14-year-old boy from Chad allegedly hung up by his wrists in a prison in Karachi and regularly beaten with a metal rod over a 20-day period. He was later sold to US forces and taken to Guantanamo, where he remains.
The report said most of the known victims of the US' secret 'renditions' programme were initially detained in Pakistan, and two-thirds of the Guantanamo prisoners whose origins are known were originally taken from Pakistan.
Many detainees have been illegally transferred to US detention centres like Bagram Airbase in Afghanistan or to secret US-run 'black site' prisons in unknown locations.
One typical example is that of the British man, Moazzam Begg, who was abducted at gunpoint from his home in Islamabad in January 2002. Begg was detained at a facility apparently run by Pakistan's intelligence service, the ISI. He was denied access to a lawyer, his family or the UK consulate, and was repeatedly told he had been detained at the behest of the US.
Begg was questioned in secret detention by US interrogators in the presence of UK intelligence officials who refused him consular help or any other assistance. The report claimed that Pakistan's already poor human rights record had declined further during the "war on terror', with 'disappearances' now spreading beyond terror suspect cases to also affect Baloch and Sindhi nationalists, as well as journalists attempting to cover sensitive topics.
