 An international human rights group has called on Pakistan to immediately release or charge two American citizens, both brothers, who were allegedly picked up by Pakistani intelligence agents last year in Karachi for links to Islamic militants and have not been heard from since. New York-based Human Rights Watch also demanded that the U.S. government clarify its involvement in the case in a press release Tuesday. It said the men are ``being held at its (Washington's) behest in Pakistan or elsewhere.'' The brothers - both of Pakistani origin and identified as Zain Afzal, 23, and Kashan Afzal, 25, - are known to be ``Islamist sympathizers'' who trained in Pakistan as guerrilla fighters with Hezb-ul-Mujahedeen, a Muslim militant group, the rights group said.
| I just ceased to have the slightest bit of interest in their welfare. How about you? |
Sara Zain, the wife of Zain Afzal, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she has tried for months to find out where her husband was being held, or if he is even alive, but has come up empty. ``I have knocked on every door but nobody is listening,'' she said in a telephone interview from Islamabad.
| "They don't care! They just don't care!" |
``They should tell me, for God's sake, where are my husband and brother-in-law. I just want to know their whereabouts.'' Interior Minister Aftab Khan Sherpao said he knew nothing of the brothers or the Human Rights Watch statement.
| "And if I did, I wouldn't be interested..." |
Greg Crouch, a spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, said he could not comment on the case due to ``Privacy Act considerations.'' According to the Human Rights Watch report, about 30 intelligence agents entered the home in the southern city of Karachi where the brothers and their families lived on August 13. They collected the men's U.S. passports and other identity papers, handcuffed the suspects and took them away. But no charges have apparently been filed since then and the brothers have not turned up anywhere, the rights group and Zain said. The rights group said Afzal was also held for one day in May 2004 by Pakistani intelligence officials, who questioned him about a trip he took to Afghanistan. It claims he was ``severely tortured'' under questioning. |