 Two former Guantanamo Bay prisoners from Sudan, who were picked up from Peshawar, are demanding an apology and planning to sue the United States after spending five years behind bars at the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
“We were detained for five years in Guantanamo. So many innocent prisoners were discharged over the past two years without giving any explanation after keeping them for years behind bars. But, we will sue the US for an apology and compensation,” said the two Sudanese nationals, Salim Mahmud Adam and Adel Hasan Hamad.
| "And for a membership in Weight Watchers!" |
Both were picked up in Peshawar on suspicion of having links with Al Qaeda. They were released from Guantanamo Bay five years later. “We are planning to sue the US with the help of human rights groups,” said Adam.
| Yeah, thanks guys, appreciate knowing which side you're on ... |
The Sudanese teacher told Daily Times that on May 27, 2002, when he opened the door of his house in the early morning hours, officials of “Pakistani intelligence agencies” handcuffed him immediately.
| "Gitcher feet back and assume da position!" |
“At 1am they surrounded my house from all sides. My wife was pregnant at the time, but they showed no mercy,” said Adam, who was the principal of an orphanage school and residing in Hayatabad at the time.
| What'd they do, let her go back to sleep? |
“I was blindfolded and taken into custody,” he said. He said he was interrogated before being shifted to Bagram, another notorious US detention camp and airbase in Afghanistan.
“My torture ordeal began early in Bagram and interrogations would sometimes last for three to four hours,” he said, adding that two months later, along with other Al Qaeda suspects, he was shifted to Guantanamo, “an inhuman place”.
| The warm sand, the tropical breezes, real, um, torture ... |
He recalled the harsh interrogations, beating and screams of fellow detainees, and the loud music played at prayer times. Some interrogators, he said, would tell him they knew he was innocent, but this was a political game. Like Adam, compatriot Adel Hasan Hamad, 50, will always remember the day he was arrested in Pakistan, on July 18, 2002. He was working in a private hospital in Peshawar as an administrator.
| Just a part-time jihadi ... |
Leaving his family back in his homeland, Hamad came to Pakistan on July 16, 2002. “I only wanted to help refugees in Afghanistan and Pakistan,” he said.
| Just a humble social worker for the Widows Ammunition Fund ... |
Two days after my arrival, I was arrested, he added. He said “Pakistani intelligence officers” accompanied by an American official woke him up, told him not to move and asked for his travel documents.
| And he couldn't produce them 'cause he had been told not to move ... |
Hamad said he was taken to a Pakistani prison, where he was held for over six days and questioned by intelligence officials. |