Five months of Pakistani journalist in Jalalabad prison - XVIII
Faizullah Khan was detained by Afghan authorities in eastern Nangarhar province in April 2014.
Part - 18: (Intriguing account of a Pakistani journalist captured in Afghanistan for interview of Taliban leadership)
Read Part - 17 here: Five months of Pakistani journalist in Jalalabad prison – XVII
The journey had begun once again. The driver left for the jail in extremely high speed with banging the siren loudly. My hands and feet were chained as a result of which my head either bumped with the nets on the right side or I fall on my left side. It was really difficult for me to maintain my balance. The intelligence officer present in the van had nothing to do with what I was going through. The official sitting next to the driver spoke to me in a sarcastic way after every while, “Did you get hurt? Don’t worry it happens in a situation like this.”
On way to jail, I kept watching the scenarios of Jalalabad where people were busy in their routine work and their life was going as usual. For me those people were the luckiest of all as they can walk and travel by their own will. After half an hour of this tiring journey, the van reached outside a big green gate. This was Jalalabad jail where I have to spend my rest of the detention.
The intelligence official seated in the van stepped out of the car and presented important documents at the checkpost after which the gate opened and the vehicle went in. Two more big gates were also crossed in the same manner and I was brought out of the van. On the third gate my documents were registered once again.
On way to jail, I kept watching the scenarios of Jalalabad where people were busy in their routine work and their life was going as usual. For me those people were the luckiest of all as they can walk and travel by their own will.
In Afghanistan, every person use to carry a pseudonym with his name and this was the reason that there was some space provided in the documents for this purpose. I had no such name with me therefore; whenever my documents were checked, the authorities use to express great bewilderment and surprise.
Here in the jail also I told the officials that in Pakistan, usually poets have a pseudonym however; common man does not possess any such trend. While filling the documents I was asked about the party I voted for, in reply to which I said that my vote is registered in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa whereas I reside in Karachi due to which I am always left aside at the time of voting.
After the procedure concluded, I was unchained. I thank Allah that I was freed from this agonizing process. One of the officials took me to a long-heighted person who had an incredibly frightening personality. I thought that he will thrash me well. In the instance, the official carrying my documents came there and asked, “Which case is his Sir Mudeer?” “This is a political case.” he replied.
Later I get to know that the name of the official was Abdulwali Hasarak and he was the jail superintendant. He was called Mudeer which means jail incharge. I also came to know that political cases are made on terrorists thus in the eyes of the Afghan authorities I was a journalist turned terrorist.
Read the Urdu version here: Five months in Jalalabad prison
