Pakistanis threaten to sue Canada

By Zaffar Abbas
BBC correspondent in Islamabad

Five Pakistani students are threatening to sue Canada after they were deported for suspected al-Qaeda links.

The men told a news conference in Islamabad they had been badly treated at the time of their arrest in Toronto and during three months in detention.

One said he had been beaten, while another accused the Canadian authorities of denying them legal help.

Human rights campaigners say the men, who were among 19 Pakistanis deported, were arrested because they were Muslim.

They broke down the doors of my apartment and pointed a gun at me Deported student Asif Aziz

Mohammed Waheed told reporters that at the time of his arrest he had been kicked and punched by six security officials, and was later thrown into a cell with a murder suspect.

Another deportee, Asif Aziz, said they had been denied legal assistance, and were not even produced before a proper court.

Although the investigators kept on asking questions about our possible links with extremist Islamic groups, he said, we were never formally charged.

Instead, Mr Aziz said, stories were leaked in the local media about the arrested Pakistanis being members of some sleeper cell of al-Qaeda.

'Suspected terrorists'

The five students said that after nearly three months in detention, the authorities were unable to find anything against them, so they used some procedural clause in the immigration laws to deport them.

Systematic abuse of this kind ... will only strengthen the hands of militant forces who preach hatred in the name of religion Pakistan Human Rights Commission

The deportees said they had no clue why they were singled out for this kind of treatment, except that they were all Pakistani Muslims.

They said they were now consulting lawyers in Pakistan about suing the Canadian authorities for wrongful confinement, and for labelling them suspected terrorists.

Prominent human rights campaigner, Asma Jehangir said after thorough investigations Pakistan's independent Human Rights Commission had come to the conclusion that the deportees had been unfairly stigmatised and treated.

She said there seemed to be a trend in some Western states to misuse laws for combating terrorism, with Muslims being the main target.