HYDERABAD, MARCH 2 When US President George W Bush visits Hyderabad tomorrow, Mohammed Azmath will watch it closely on TV at his house in Old City’s Doodh Bowli.A TV news telecast on the day of Bush’s arrival in India has given Azmath some hope that the US government will compensate him for illegally keeping him in prison.
“I heard some good news. Two guys I knew in prison who were detained under suspicion, Javed Iqbal from Pakistan and Egyptian Ehad Makhribian, are being paid compensation. I am hoping that is good news for me too,” he says.
Azmath and fellow Hyderabadi Ayub Ali Khan, suspected to be terrorists in the aftermath of 9/11, were set free 18 months after their arrest, charged not for terrorism but for credit card fraud—a means to justify their unjust incarceration, according to Azmath.
It took Azmath over 18 months after his deportation to India in early 2003 to bring himself around to work and support his wife, young son, his parents, and an elderly uncle.
The solitary confinement, the abuse and the harsh treatment they received in prison have taken their toll on these men from the largely poor Doodh Bowli. Azmath, who is trying his hand at transportation business, believes talking about his experience will provide the catharsis to heal the wounds. Ayub, said to be a stock broker, prefers to leave the past behind and not talk about it. “He wants to forget the past and live his new life,” says Azmath of his friend.
“It’s been very difficult starting life again because of the period I was in prison. It was a good life in the US but everything changed when I became a victim of 9/11. My religion and my face were the only basis on which I was treated as a suspect. I have to now accept my reality and stand on my feet again,” says 40-year-old Azmath.
Stories and photographs from Guantanamo Bay bring back nightmares to Azmath. “When I hear of what is happening in Guantanamo Bay, I realise what we were subjected to in the Brooklyn prison is exactly what is being done in Guantanamo Bay. In our case it happened in the US, now it is elsewhere,” says Azmath.
“I consider myself absolutely lucky to be free. I know of some people who are still in prisons, people who were detained in the same prison as me on similar suspicion,” he says.
Azmath is back to using brown hair dye, found in his belongings at the time of his arrest from an Amtrak train, along with Ayub, and a reason for increased suspicion against him. But he has also been diagnosed as suffering from a post-traumatic stress syndrome. “I want to restart my life but my bad dream keeps haunting me,” he says.
Epaper
Newsletter
Stocks
Weather
Horoscope
