Tariq Hussain, a Pakistani native who works at a kiosk in Pittsburgh, told CNN that agents asked him if he had links to Osama bin Laden or knew anyone who did. Agents searched his apartment and, finding photographs he had taken in Times Square while visiting New York as a tourist, demanded to know why he took those pictures. “Are you planning to attack there or something?” they demanded.
The mall sweeps come on the heels of the secret overnight airlift of 131 Pakistanis in handcuffs on June 26 (see “US deports 131 Pakistanis in secret airlift” http://wsws.org/articles/2002/jul2002/depo-j16.shtml ), in which neither the prisoners nor their families were informed of the details of their impending deportations.
On his arrival in Pakistan, one of the deportees, 35 year-old Mufeed Khan, described his ill treatment during four months in prison: “I was shackled and handcuffed—completely bound—and questioned as if I were an associate of Osama bin Laden. I was treated as a terrorist. I was psychologically tortured in the prison. I was treated badly because I am a Muslim. Carrying a Muslim name should not be a crime.”
Mr. Khan had lived in the United States for 11 years and owned a small business in Los Angeles before he was detained last February on a minor immigration violation.
The mall sweeps come on the heels of the secret overnight airlift of 131 Pakistanis in handcuffs on June 26 (see “US deports 131 Pakistanis in secret airlift” http://wsws.org/articles/2002/jul2002/depo-j16.shtml ), in which neither the prisoners nor their families were informed of the details of their impending deportations.
On his arrival in Pakistan, one of the deportees, 35 year-old Mufeed Khan, described his ill treatment during four months in prison: “I was shackled and handcuffed—completely bound—and questioned as if I were an associate of Osama bin Laden. I was treated as a terrorist. I was psychologically tortured in the prison. I was treated badly because I am a Muslim. Carrying a Muslim name should not be a crime.”
Mr. Khan had lived in the United States for 11 years and owned a small business in Los Angeles before he was detained last February on a minor immigration violation.