The decision of President Karzai to release some prisoners from the notorious Bagram prison was not much welcomed both on national and international media. It was termed a ‘mysterious’ act of government when dangerous terrorists including some Taliban were released. It was really difficult to understand as why such terrorists were so easily released who had killed a large number of civilians and members of Afghan security forces and who were caught after the sacrifices of large number of National Army soldiers and officers. Although Afghan government kept yelling that these were innocent people who were caught without any proof and due o some other problems and sole intention of government was to uphold justice with them but no one, especially in Afghan media was ready to listen to these explanations. A picture posted on Facebook got viral showing the prisoners having a wonderful meal and talking and enjoying the company of each other in a restaurant in the heart of Kabul city, Shahre-Naw, immediately after they were released from the prison. People had got much emotional to see them laughing and it was commented that, ‘They are not laughing on something funny rather they are laughing on us; our judicial system and security forces, that they can walk free after committing the most serious crimes.’

It was also not easy to understand the viewpoint of government. The released prisoners could have been declared ‘perfect terrorists’ as far as their external appearance was concerned. They had the trademark appearance associated with Taliban and Afghan terrorists; long beard, rigid faces, and big round turbans on their heads. This misconception is quite understandable if held by foreigners who are not aware of our culture and traditions but it was unfortunate that our Afghans were also making comments like, ‘They look terrorists from their looks and appearance’. It is still a ground reality that in all our rural and most of our urban places, people still wear turban and keeping a beard is a religious obligation and it applies to all the common people. Keeping in view this fact, it is not rational that we should declare someone terrorist on the basis of his appearance.

 In order to understand the viewpoint of government, we need to understand the fact that large number of innocent people were caught in the so-called ‘war against terror’ and put behind the bars. To understand this fact, let’s revisit the famous case of Dilawar Khan who belonged to the Yaqubi district of Khost province. He lived with his brothers in the village and worked with them in the farm. But he was not happy of the work of farm so he decided to change his profession and became a taxi driver. One day, when he was on the way with three passengers, he was stopped on a police checkpoint. He and the passengers were immediately caught and soon handed over to the American forces in Bagram. But only after five days, he was declared dead due to some natural causes and his dead body was handed over to his family. It was a bit alarming and suspicious to some people in Bagram as another prisoner died in the prison in a week after his arrival and his death was also very suspicious.

These two deaths caught the attention of some of the journalists and they started their investigation. Although all the efforts were made to bar them from gaining access to any kind of information but however, they found out that these two deaths were not normal. Although the report issued about their deaths were quite ambiguous and the doctor had tried to declare it due to natural reasons, but there were certain suspicious facts in them. Later on, public pressure forced the government not only to carry out a neutral investigation but also gave access to the members of international media for all the soldiers who had interrogated them and also the papers available in this regard. The investigations found that these prisoners were subjected to severe physical and psychological torture of the human history that had resulted in the death of these prisoners. A documentary film, ‘A Taxi to the Dark Side’ also describes the details of these criminal acts being carried out by members of military intelligence of the US Army and CIA.

The story doesn't end here. In 2004, the notorious case of Abu-Ghraib prison of Iraq came in media and brought a lot of shame for the American public and soldiers. In this prison, the prisoners were not only badly tortured but they were also subjected to extreme religious and gender humiliations. It was found out that the officer in charge of these investigations in Iraq was also present in Bagram when the suspicious death of Dilawar happened.

After 9-11, the American nation was very angry which was depicted by the sentences like, ‘Those who did these will have to face the consequences as well’. When the American forces captured Afghanistan and Iraq, they were ambitious to bring the perpetrators into justice. Later on, it was just like adding fuel to the fire when suicide attacks and bombs killed so many American soldiers. They were filled with anger and feeling of revenge and were ready to go to any extent to inflict harm on the enemy. But the problem was that, how could you distinguish and differentiate an enemy and a neutral civilian. According to an American soldier, ‘It is very difficult because they all look the same’. The problem was also caused due to a fact that the culture and society of both Afghanistan and Iraq were completely strange for them. Due to the lack of time, these soldiers especially those with the duty of investigation were not given proper training and they were not capable of understanding the differences between the terrorists and the civilians.

In such circumstances, they drifted from fair investigation and started assuming everyone one to be a terrorist. It was also due to some people and authorities in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan as well. Many of the prisoners were handed over to the US soldiers for getting the reward. On the other hand, many innocent people were handed over to the American soldiers and introduced as dangerous threats for reward and appreciation or due to some private enmities. Investigations found out the same in the case of Dilawar. The day Dilawar was caught; an American base was attacked by rockets. Dilawar was caught by Afghan forces at a checkpoint near this base. According to Afghan forces, a transmitter was found hidden in his car, of which Dilawar was absolutely unaware till his last breaths. Later on it was found out that the commander of Afghan forces who had caught Dilawar was behind the rocket attacks and he had handed over Dilawar to win the praise of American forces and also to divert the attention away from his crime.

The statistics also show that less than 10% of all the terrorists have been caught by the American forces while the rest have been handed over by the governments or civilians of the said countries. When these criminals were handed over, they were shown as potential terrorists and thus American forces had to use all the methods to obtain information from them. Investigations have also found out that true proof and evidence was present against very small proportion of these suspected terrorists.

However, it is a fact that thousands of innocents were caught and subjected to severe torture in Bagram, prisons of Iraq and the most notorious, the Guantanamo Bay. Now that Afghan government has taken the complete control of Bargam prison, our forces should carry out thorough investigation and make sure that no innocent person should stay behind the bar on the name of terrorists.