KARACHI: A former Guantanamo Bay prisoner from Karachi, who spent about two decades at the detention center without being charged before his return home in February last year, died in his native city on Friday, his brother and a fellow former detainee confirmed on Saturday.
Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabbani’s death was attributed by his brother, Muhammad Ahmed Ghulam Rabbani, to inadequate medical care during a prolonged illness, which he said extended their suffering even after their transfer to Pakistan.
According to Reprieve, a global legal action non-profit, the brothers endured 545 days of torture in CIA custody following their arrest in Karachi on September 10, 2002, before being transferred to Guantanamo in 2004.
“We spent over twenty arduous years together in Guantanamo,” said the late former Guantanamo detainee’s brother. “On Friday at 2 AM, he passed away in my arms.”
Guantanamo Bay, a US military detention facility established in Cuba to detain suspects in the “War on Terror” after the September 11, 2001, attacks, became notorious for holding prisoners without trials, drawing widespread condemnation.
International human rights groups criticized the facility for violating detainees’ rights to due process, with allegations of extreme interrogation techniques amounting to torture, including waterboarding and prolonged isolation.
Rabbani recalled that both brothers briefly felt relief when they learned they would be handed over to Pakistani authorities, believing their ordeal would end.
“But our suffering continued,” he said. “Over 19 months, we still lack identity cards. My brother had been ill for a long time, but we couldn’t access proper medical care without an ID.”
He added that his brother fell “seriously ill” more than 20 times, attributing it to injections administered upon their arrival at Guantanamo and the extensive torture they endured.
“He suffered such violence that his hand was broken, his leg was broken and his private parts were damaged, ruining his family life,” Rabbani said. “When he passed away, we even faced difficulties in burying him because an ID card was required.”
Overwhelmed by their circumstances, he questioned why they were returned to Pakistan when their own government was unwilling to issue identity documents.
“My dearest brother has left me behind,” he added. “He did not have peace for even a single day after the arrest. What was our crime? What is our crime?”
In the early 2000s, Pakistan apprehended and transferred hundreds of individuals to US custody, claiming they were linked to Al Qaeda. In his 2006 memoir, In the Line of Fire, then-President Pervez Musharraf said his government had received substantial CIA payments for these handovers.
Subsequent analyzes revealed that many of these detainees, mistakenly identified as militants, were likely innocent.
Lahore-based analyst Majid Nizami called the Rabbani brothers’ arrest “a case of illegal abduction by state agencies of Pakistan,” later justified as “mistaken identity.”
“It’s unclear whether this was intentional by Pakistani agencies or a severe negligence,” he told Arab News. “It has not yet been determined who was responsible, and no one seems interested in addressing the issue.”
According to some estimates, Pakistani authorities handed over nearly 370 people to the US after 9/11. The two brothers were among those transferred to American custody for $5,000 each.
‘He never found peace’: Former Guantanamo detainee from Pakistan dies after years of suffering
https://arab.news/yr6jy
‘He never found peace’: Former Guantanamo detainee from Pakistan dies after years of suffering
- Abdul Rahim Ghulam Rabban died after prolonged illness due to a lack of proper medical care
- Arrested in Karachi in 2002, he spent about two decades at the US prison without ever being charged
Islamabad puts drivers on notice as smog crisis worsens
- Police checkpoints have issued over 300 fines and impounded 80 vehicles as Islamabad rolls out roadside emissions checks
- Transport accounts for over half of the capital’s toxic PM2.5, with air quality this month repeatedly breaching WHO safety limits
ISLAMABAD: Truck driver Muhammad Afzal was not expecting to be stopped by police, let alone fined, as he drove into Islamabad this week because of the thick diesel fumes emanating from his exhaust pipe.
“This is unfair,” he said after being told to pay 1,000 rupees ($3.60), with the threat of having his truck impounded if he did not “fix” the problem.
“I was coming from Lahore after getting my vehicle repaired. They pressed the accelerator to make it release smoke. It’s an injustice,” he told AFP.
Checkpoints set up this month are part of a crackdown by authorities to combat the city’s soaring smog levels, with winter months the worst due to atmospheric inversions that trap pollutants at ground level.
“We have already warned the owners of stern action, and we will stop their entry into the city if they don’t comply with the orders,” said Dr. Zaigham Abbas of Pakistan’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), as he surveyed the checkpoint at the southeast edge of the capital.
For Waleed Ahmed, a technician inspecting the vehicles at the site, “just like a human being, a vehicle has a life cycle. Those that cross it release smoke that is dangerous to human health.”
‘SELF-INFLICTED CRISIS’
While not yet at the extreme winter levels of Lahore or the megacity Karachi, where heavy industry and brick kilns spew tons of pollutants each year, Islamabad is steadily closing the gap.
So far in December it has already registered seven “very unhealthy” days for PM2.5 particulates of more than 150 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the Swiss-based monitoring firm IQAir.
Intraday PM2.5 levels in Islamabad often exceed those in Karachi and Lahore, and in 2024 the city’s average PM2.5 reading for the year was 52.3 micrograms — surpassing the 46.2 for Lahore.
Those annual readings are far beyond the safe level of five micrograms recommended by the World Health Organization.
Built from scratch as Pakistan’s capital in the 1960s, the city was envisioned as an urban model for the rapidly growing nation, with wide avenues and ample green spaces abutting the Himalayan foothills.
But the expansive layout discourages walking and public transport remains limited, meaning cars — mostly older models — are essential for residents to get around.
“The capital region is choked overwhelmingly by its transport sector,” which produces 53 percent of its toxic PM2.5 particles, the Pakistan Air Quality Initiative, a research group, said in a recent report.
“The haze over Islamabad... is not the smoke of industry, but the exhaust of a million private journeys — a self-inflicted crisis,” it said.
‘HER BASIC RIGHT’
Announcing the crackdown on December 7, EPA chief Nazia Zaib Ali said over 300 fines were issued at checkpoints in the first week, with 80 vehicles impounded.
“We cannot allow non-compliant vehicles at any cost to poison the city’s air and endanger public health,” she said in a statement.
The city has also begun setting up stations where drivers can have their emissions inspected, with those passing receiving a green sticker on their windshield.
“We were worried for Lahore, but now it’s Islamabad. And that’s all because of vehicles emitting pollution,” said Iftikhar Sarwar, 51, as he had his car checked on a busy road near an Islamabad park.
“I never needed medicine before but now I get allergies if I don’t take a tablet in the morning. The same is happening with my family,” he added.
Other residents say they worry the government’s measures will not be enough to counter the worsening winter smog.
“This is not the Islamabad I came to 20 years ago,” said Sulaman Ijaz, an anthropologist.
“I feel uneasy when I think about what I will say if my daughter asks for clean air — that is her basic right.”
