On 11th March 2000, I was taken aback to read the letter '' Ex-MNA in Attock Fort'' by Mohammad Akram Sheikh in an Islamabad-based newspaper. An Urdu daily of 12th March also presented a similar report that the accused at the Attock Fort are suffering from blood dysentery because of contaminated food and water that is given to them.
I was not going to believe this piece of information until a friend of mine asked me to accompany him to meet the family of one of the accused who is detained at the Attock Fort. I was hesitant to go to their house but then curiosity pulled me to their door.
As we took up the issue of the living conditions of the accused kept at the Attock Fort, one of his family members described how the accused were being treated. Their story was quite similar to what Mr. Akram Sheikh had described in his letter regarding the Ex-MNA.
I was shocked to know that the part of the Attock Fort, where they are keeping the accused has been declared as a police station by the military government, but in fact it is totally under the army control. Here the favour given by the court to the accused such as newspapers, food from home etc have not been honoured. Earlier the accused were locked up in solitary confinement in 4x6 torture cells, with no ventilation and a high-wattage light bulb which was constantly kept on but now there is complete darkness in the cells with a zero-watt red light bulb kept on to put strain on the nerves of the accused. The accused cannot make out whether it is daytime of light because their wristwatches have been taken away from them. They are given no books, newspapers, medicines or food from home.
The accused are made to sleep on the hard ground of the cells with no bedding and only a blanket. Earlier the accused were permitted to come out of their cells for 30 minutes in 24 hours to breath fresh air but now it has stopped. The accused is allowed to meet their family members once a week under army's strict supervision for an hour, with out any privacy and all their conversation is recorded. Even the lawyers cannot discuss any thing in private with their clients (the accused) as each and everything is recorded.
There are certain accused in the cells, who desperately need to see a psychiatrist and are mostly crying and shouting in their cells. However, the NAB deems that as long as they look OK there is no need for them and the others to see a psychiatrist or a doctor. Only in very serious cases the NAB officials provide a medical doctor but not a psychiatrist. There are also reports like the case of the Ex-MNA, that several accused at the Attock Fort are suffering from blood dysentery, because they are given contaminated water for drinking. The accused is being slow poisoned at Attock Fort.
I take this opportunity to bring into the kind notice of Chief Executive General Pervaiz Musharraf that torture and degrading methods employed by the NAB are likely to bring a bad name to the present government. Some elements in the NAB are not only defaming General Pervaiz Musharraf who is so eager, trying to build up the image of our beloved country nationally and internationally, but also bringing dishonour to the honourable courts in the country.
I hope honourable Gen. Parvez Musharraf would take notice of this brutality and set things straight. Pakistan Army is the protector and the provider of human rights. One just can't blame everything wrong committed by a few men in the service on the whole armed forces. We ' Jawans ' are here to build Pakistan not to break it!
Col. Rafiq Jan
Razak,
Peshawar.