The British High Commission in Pakistan has said that it has been denied access to a British citizen imprisoned on suspicion of being a threat to national security. Rengzeib Ahmed, from Manchester, has been detained since April 2006 in northern Pakistan without being charged for any offence, said the high commission. He is being held under the Security of Pakistan Act, which permits indefinite detention of suspects deemed to be a threat to national security. “We have tried everything we can to see him in Adiala prison and to get confirmation of his nationality,” a British High Commission spokesman told the BBC. The Pakistani authorities have not commented on the high commission’s allegations.
Rengzeib Ahmed has been confined in the prison in Rawalpindi since his “official arrest” in April this year. His brother recently wrote a letter to the BBC saying British police had only told the family about Rengzeib’s arrest in 2006. “I am very concerned about my brother, his health and how he is being kept in Adiala prison,” the brother, Mohammad Pervez, said. His letter says that Rengzeib Ahmed “was taken by the Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence and the American Central Intelligence Agency to an unknown place somewhere in Pakistan. He was kept for eight months and tortured”.
Pervez says his brother was then handed over to Pakistani police, who sent him to Adiala prison where he is currently being held. Rengzeib Ahmed was finally produced in a high court in June 2006. He was remanded in custody for another two months after prosecutors pleaded for more time to frame charges.
While granting the remand, the judges also ordered that Mr Ahmed be allowed legal counsel. Human rights organisations accuse the authorities of abusing discretionary powers under the Security of Pakistan Act. “We are concerned about the persistent abuse of the Security of Pakistan Act, which is used to detain suspects and hold them incommunicado for extended or indefinite periods,” a spokesman for the Pakistani branch of Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. “Human Rights Watch believes this contravenes the most basic principles of justice.”