Focus: Relatives waiting for Guantanamo returnees

Bearded Masih-uz Zaman and his nephews sit in a room of his house located in a labyrinthine Kutcha busti in Peshawar city, the carpets and cushions boasting the family's Afghan heritage.
"Pray for my brothers," pleads a piece of paper hanging onto the door welcomes the guests in this room.

When I entered, everybody prayed for Masih's brothers, even before the introduction.

I had already been told to do so by my companion Majeed Babar, a local sociologist, who helped me locate the family of Guantanamo prisoners. "It is an Afghan tradition that if somebody from the family faces a problem then every visitor prays," he told me. After prayers, the aged Masih bursts into tears, with him his young nephews.

"My brothers are innocent. They have nothing to do with Al Qaida or Taliban. Having a beard or speaking Arabic or Pushto is no crime," Masih says.

The life of Masih's family changed last year when Pakistan's security forces detained his two brothers, Abdur Raheem, a religious scholar and a poet of Arabic, and Badruz Zaman, a teacher at a private educational institution.

"For five months we did not know about their whereabouts. We appealed to everyone. We did not know whether they are dead or alive," Masih recalls. "But then we received an envelope which had English written on it. I immediately called my nephew who read it to us, saying that his father and uncle are in an American prison"

"…I shrieked but at least I knew that they were alive," narrating his tale while showing around dozens of letters written in Pushto sent to the family by his brothers, stamped "detainee X-Ray Camp."

"Both of them write to us in letters that they are allowed to offer prayers and provided with good meals. But we don't know whether they try to console us because we read in the newspapers that prisoners are kept in inhuman conditions. They are kept handcuffed and shackled," he says.

"We haven't had a single good moment since then. We did not celebrate Eid last year; there has not been any marriage in the family. We hope that our life will change and my innocent brothers return home," Masih says.

Masih's family is among the dozen other Pakistani families whose siblings were picked up by the Pakistan and American security forces mostly from the NWFP and its adjoining tribal areas and Afghanistan as a part of the U.S.-led war against terror.

And they were sent to Guantanamo Bay for investigation for their alleged involvement in "terrorist" activities and having possible links with the Taliban and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaida organisation.

Around 600 people, including 58 Pakistanis, are in Guantanamo. While Masih's bothers were picked up from Peshawar, many Pakistanis were detained from Afghanistan.

The 55-year-old Mohammed Sagheer was among them.

He was a member of a banned militant organisation Tehrik-e-Nifaz-e-Shariat Mohammedi which sent thousands of its members and supporters from Pakistan's tribal areas to fight along with Taliban forces against the American forces last year amidst frenzy created by the country's Islamists.

Sagheer, the first Pakistani to be released from Guantanamo, has returned to Pakistan on Sunday evening. Sagheer, who hails from a remote village of Kaseer in the NWFP, has 10 sons and six daughters from his two wives.

Sagheer's release came after the U.S. authorities announced to let go some of the detainees after a thorough investigation.

"He had gone to Afghanistan for preaching and not for fighting. He was not a terrorist. Now we thank God that he has been released," his nephew Noor Mohammed says. "Now we will tell him not to go to Afghanistan ever. We are poor people and cannot afford a fight against rich Americans," he says. "He used to sell wood and after returning home he will continue to sell the wood."

Encouraged by Sagheer's return, Masih and his family now hope that their relatives will soon return home. Masih has already started preparing for celebrations. He has bought a goat to offer sacrifice for the return of his brothers Abdur Raheem and Badr-uz Zaman and bedding to house the guests who will come to congratulate them.

Masih is suspended between hope and anticipation of his brothers' return. Masih's nephew, nine-year-old Abdul Moiz, has already applied for vacation from his school on the hope of his father's return.