WASHINGTON - November 6 - Amnesty International called on Pakistan's government to ensure the safety of Abdur Rahim Muslim Dost, who was arrested without a warrant on September 29 in Peshawar and whose whereabouts are now unknown. The organization believes the Afghan poet and magazine editor is at risk of torture.

Because of the urgency of Dost's plight, Amnesty International recently issued an Urgent Action on his behalf, mobilizing its more than 1.8 million members worldwide to press for his safety and demand that his location be revealed.

"Abdur Rahim Muslim Dost is a brave voice of dissent against Pakistani human rights violations in the U.S.-led war on terror," said Larry Cox, Amnesty International USA Executive Director. "Pakistani authorities have arrested this courageous man in an attempt to silence him. The international community must raise its voice to Pakistan's government to help make sure that Dost is not tortured or ill-treated."

Pakistani agencies had earlier arbitrarily arrested, detained and unlawfully transferred Dost and his brother to U.S. custody.

On September 29, 2006, Dost was arrested by officers of Pakistan's Crime Investigation Department as he left a mosque in Peshawar. His children and elder brother, Sayed Mohammad, were present. Dost has not been charged with a criminal offense and has not been brought before a magistrate. In addition, he has not been allowed to see a lawyer or his family.

Sayed Mohammad filed a habeas corpus petition on October 5 in Peshawar's High Court. The court has asked the federal and provincial authorities for information about Dost's whereabouts. The petition also seeks assurances from the court that he will not be removed from its territorial jurisdiction.

Dost has lived in Peshawar for several years. On November 17, 2001, he and his younger brother, Badruzzaman Badr, were arrested by military authorities at their home in Peshawar. They were handed over to the U.S. authorities on February 8, 2002, and held at the U.S. airbase in Bagram and then Kandahar, Afghanistan, before being transferred to the U.S.- controlled detention center in Guantanamo Bay on May 1, 2002. Badruzzaman Badr was released from Guantanamo Bay on September 24, 2004; Dost was freed on April 20, 2005. Neither brother had been charged with any offense during his unlawful detention.

The brothers returned to their home in Peshawar and in September 2006 published a book about their experiences, Da Guantanamo Mati Zolani ("The Broken Shackles of Guantanamo"). This book is reportedly critical of the Pakistani intelligence agencies' role in the pursuit of the war on terror and describes the brothers' torture in Pakistani and U.S. custody. Badruzzaman Badr has gone into hiding, fearing a fate similar to that of his brother.

"Abdur Rahim Muslim Dost's detention is only the latest in a long and atrocious series," said T. Kumar, Amnesty International USA Advocacy Director for Asia and the Pacific. "Pakistani complicity in the U.S.-led war on terror has involved several hundred 'disappearances.' As Amnesty International has documented, detainees have been arrested and held incommunicado at secret locations, with the authorities denying that they're being held. This is all in clear violation of international human rights standards as well as Pakistani law."

The clandestine nature of the war on terror makes it impossible to know exactly how many 'disappearances' or other arbitrary detentions have been committed in Pakistan, but Pakistani military spokesperson Major-General Shaukat Sultan said in June 2006 that since 2001, some 1,000 terrorists had been arrested.

"The Pakistani government is eager to be seen as contributing to the aims of the war on terror," said Cox. "That, along with the routine U.S. practice of offering rewards running to thousands of dollars for the handover of unidentified terror suspects, has encouraged illegal detentions and 'disappearances.'"

For more information on enforced disappearances and the use of torture in the war on terror, please see Amnesty International's report, Pakistan: Human rights ignored in the 'war on terror', at http://www.amnestyusa.org/waronterror/index.do

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