Pakistani woman in Bagram : Are we an independent nation?
By M. Waqas (MPA) • Jul 8th, 2008 • Category: Misc, Worth A Second Look • 16 Comments •The other day British journalist Yvonne Ridley stunned the nation when she called for help on Sunday for a Pakistani woman she believes is being held in isolation by the Americans in their Bagram detention centre in Afghanistan, for more than four years.” I call her the ‘grey lady’ because she is almost a ghost, a specter whose cries and screams continues to haunt those who heard her,” Ms Ridley said at a press conference. She urged the people to come to rescue of the innocent lady.
Ms Ridley, who has come to Pakistan to appeal for help, said the case came to her attention when she read the Enemy Combatant, a book by former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg. After being seized in February 2002 in Islamabad, Mr Begg was kept in detention centres in Kandahar and Bagram for about a year before he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay. He recounted his experiences in the book after his release in 2005.
Ms Ridley read the text from the book’s section covering Mr Begg’s stay in Bagram: “I began to hear the chilling screams of a woman next door… Why have you got a woman next door? They told me there was no woman. But I was unconvinced. Those screams echoed through my worst nightmares for a long time. And I later learned in Guantanamo, from other prisoners, that they had heard the screams too.”
Ms Ridley, who was detained in Afghanistan for 10 days by the Taliban in September 2001, said, “My story made international headlines, front page pictures and major stories on TV. But there has not been one word, not one paragraph about Prisoner 650 — the ‘grey lady’ of Bagram, a murderous detention facility under control of US military and intelligence services.”
Demanding her immediate release from US military’s detention, Ms Ridley said: “We don’t know her identity, the state of her mind, the extent of the abuse or torture. What I do know is that this would never happen to a western woman. Don’t they value a Muslim woman? Is her life worthless?”
Chief of TIP Imran Khan questioned the supremacy of parliament and asked the government to come to the rescue of this lady. He said this lady may me missing Dr Afia. She is missing from five years.
Trackback URL
|
|
|
M. Waqas (MPA)
Email this author | All posts by M. Waqas (MPA)
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Loading ...
British-born, award-winning journalist Yvonne Ridley is well known in the Muslim world for her outspoken views and defence of Islam. She endeared herself to the Muslim community in Britain when she reverted to Islam 30 months after making international headlines when she was captured by the Taleban on an undercover assignment in Afghanistan.
She was the chief reporter of the Sunday Express at the time, having spent nearly 10 years in Fleet Street working for several prestige titles including The Sunday Times, The Observer, Daily Mirror and Independent on Sunday. Sr Yvonne set out as a regional journalist nearly 30 years ago in her native North East. She has also worked as a broadcaster, producer and presenter on programmes for BBC TV and radio, CNN, ITN and Carlton TV travelling to Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine. A founder member of Women in Journalism, she is also a promoter of women’s rights, and is also a founder member of the Stop The War Coaltion and the RESPECT political party.
In her spare time Sr Yvonne travels throughout the UK and across the globe promoting peace and the anti-war message. She has also delivered lectures on issues relating to Iraq, Palestine, Afghanistan, Chechnya, Kashmir and Uzbekistan, Women in Islam, the War on Terror and journalism at Ivy League universities across the US, Australia, South Africa and the Middle East. Sr Yvonne is a founder member of the Friends of Islam, an All Party Parliamentary Group and Women in Journalism. In addition she is a member of the National Union of Journalists, the International federation of Journalists and the Society of Authors. She has written two books called In The Hands of the Taleban and Ticket to Paradise and is currently writing and researching for two other titles including a biography of Osama bin Laden. Sr Yvonne is a patron of the UK-based pressure groups Cage Prisoners and Hhugs. She also devotes much of her time to humanitarian work and is a Goodwill Ambassador for the charities Helping Hands.
http://www.yvonneridley.org/
Imran Khan is great, and his resolve is also great. He is simultaneously fighting Musharraf, Altaf Hussain and the America, and also taking head on collision with Zardari.
Ofcourse shame on US
Imran Khan is doing a great service indeed, and I am quite impressed by the Sr. Ridley’s courage and her noble workings. Bagram is the least discussed prison in the world, though its the most frightening one, even than Gitmo and Abu Gharib, and I would request kind TPS authors to have something on this too for us.
I mean how they know she is a Muslim, as both Imran and Yvonne don’t even know the true identity of that lady?
Imran is a good guy - is that why this former member of the Punjab Assembly Waqas and his party, Jamat Islami, get him roughed up by the hooligans of IJT (Islami Jamiat-e-Tulba) at the Punjab University?
Rubab has done a job of appointing herself propagandist for this journalist.
The journalist herself is making money in her choesen vocation - and I fail to find any reason to be incited by all this floccinaucinihilipilification right now. Lets wait untill the facts come out a little more.
Your Job as Musharraf-Savior is perhaps going nowhere, Aftab Sahib.
You got me all wrong. Again!
James Sutherland - what planet are you living on? All the detainees in Guantanamo and Abu Ghraib are Muslims. I haven;t read any stories about Christians, jews, Bhuddists, Hindus etc. being arrested in the War on Terror.
And even if this woman is not a Muslim it is disgusting that she is being held without a charge or court in Bagram for years. This is an injustice in any language, in anyh faith. Wake up and do something.
JM
how do we know it was a Pakistani woman
no where does this report prove that it was a Pakistani woman
Either it is a Pakistani, Irani or Afghani…but she is a human being so authorities should do some thing to get her release from insane forces. We should not get indulge in discussion of religion or country when some body needs help. Being a Muslim, we should give respect to every human being and every living creature.
Only Good Deeds will be considered on the day of judgement. Saving one human being is like saving whole human kind, regardless of caste, religion, location, ethnicity or race.
We all know US and its prison guards donot follow human right laws asi n Abu ghraib and Gautonomobay. But how this socalled Muslim loving author knows this woman to be a Paksitani?Why cannot she be a Afghan woman?
Ms Ridley is knocking at the wrong doors for demanding justice for any innocent women.O CJP was arrested, and still nonfunctional,ex COAS and presnt president confessed without hesitation of deals of Pakistanis with US adminstration, an open daylight murder of international leader was done and not a single logical inquiry was intiated for real culprits and many many more are real example of lawlessnes in our homeland.So in a country where no one is taking responsability of its people ,making such a hue and cry would make no effect .All are runing for personal securites and benefits in my homeland, just a jungle raj where thinking of justice of system is a concept of obsolete governance,just waiting for justice of GOD.
Ms Ridley is an astute business woman and is conscious of her interests, she know damn well which side of bread is buttered. Tell me which journalist would not exploit such instant popularity provided by self appointed propagandists like Nazia here. Why doesn’t Ms Ridley sell her commodity there where such purported human rights violations are planned?
Please sign the petition to condemn this act and to liberate our sisters.
http://www.pro-pakistan.com/2008/07/10/prisoner-650-sign-the-petition-to-liberate-her/
The Pakistani people are more than trash..!!! they are now without any emotions and feelings. Musharraf and his companions have sold thousands of Pakistani innocent lives on the basis of wild shot and loose intelligence. Afia is one of them. Her screams would die inside the walls of the detention center. The so called Muslims would not raise an eyebrow…
Better don’t discuss this kind of facts ….people of Pakistan are long dead…long lost their ability to feel the screams of innocent people.
The only thing which needs an appreciation that a non muslim is identifying the agonies of woman trapped helpless in the hands of vultures and beasts…
Musharraf…like Saddam would be alone on the ramp of execution…I bet