'US had detention centres in Pakistan'

Dawn, March 29, 2005
'US had detention centres in Pakistan'
By Anwar Iqbal


WASHINGTON, March 28: The United States has secretly operated several detention facilities in Pakistan where suspected terrorists were kept before being transferred to prison camps in Cuba and other places, reports Human Rights First.

Quoting from recently released government documents, the US-based rights group reports that most of these detentions facilities were operated along the Pakistan-Afghanistan border.

A document summarizing the findings of a US Army criminal investigation, which was provided to Human Rights First under the Freedom of Information Act, shows that US forces were holding suspects at a secret facility in Peshawar through at least July 2002.

Besides Peshawar, the United States also maintained detention facilities at Kohat and Alizai. Although reports in the US media have often mentioned these two facilities, the US administration has never denied their existence.

"This new information (about the US detention centre in Peshawar) raises questions about how far reaching the US programme of secret detentions has been in Pakistan and continues to be," said Priti Patel, an attorney with Human Rights First.