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| India-Pakistan | |
| Pakistan: Activist And Former Bin Laden Aide Shifted To High Security | |
| 2007-02-24 | |
| (AKI/DAWN) - Khalid Khawaja, a human rights activist and former close aide of Osama bin Laden, who was also a former official with Pakistan's powerful secret service Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during the 1980s, was shifted from Pakistan's Adiala Jail to the high security prison in Faisalabad, on Thursday, according to a report on the Pakistani daily Dawn. A retired Pakistan Air Force squadron leader, Khawaja is currently the chief coodinator of the Islamic Centre for Research and Defence of Human Rights, an organisation which campaigns on the behalf of relatives of terrorism suspects who have "disappeared". Khawaja was arrested by police on 26 January on charges of inciting people against the government, distributing hate material and sabotaging negotiations between the government and ulema or Muslim clerics on the issue of the stand-off between the government and the madrassa Hafsa over plans to demolish mosques built without permission on government land. Security sources said that KhawajaÂ’s bail application was accepted by the Additional District and Sessions Judge Nisar Ahmad Baig on Wednesday. He was to be released on Thursday but the prison authorities shifted him to the high security prison, Faisalabad, on the instructions of government. On Wednesday, Khawaja was produced before the court and after hearing the arguments of KhawajaÂ’s lawyer, the judge accepted the bail application and ordered his release. After Khawaja was booked, he was sent to a hospital for a medical check on 29 January as he was said to be suffering from heart disease. He was discharged after undergoing some tests. Speaking to reporters at the time he said that he was a victim of state terrorism, and the charges against him were baseless.
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| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 ...a human rights activist and former close aide of Osama bin Laden, who was also a former official with Pakistan's powerful secret service Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) during the 1980s... Now THERE is a resume! |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2007-02-24 13:29 |