Pakistani Equivalent of Guantanamo Holds Thousands

The Pakistan Military is holding thousands of suspected insurgents in detention. The insurgents have been held for over a year and have not been allowed to contact friends, family, human rights organizations or legal representation. The military feels this is necessary because they cannot trust their own countries legal system to properly try and convict those guilty. The fear is that top names in the insurgency will use their power to pull the right strings and get out of jail time. While it is a noble endeavor to keep insurgents off the streets of Pakistan, how many innocent lives have been swept up in this mess? I fear that this is no better than what the US has been doing in Guantanamo these last few years.

Possibly worse than the detainees is the alleged 300 extrajudicial killings committed by the Pakistan military. They have no right to declare themselves Judge Jury and Executioner. It was their job to get them off the streets and they did that. If it's true that they went ahead and killed a vast number of them, then we have a bigger problem on our hands than we thought. 300 deaths isn't a little thing, it's a war crime.

There is no public record of who has been detained and until that record is made, more people, guilty and innocent, are at risk of being killed. Estimates put the number of prisoners being held at around 2,500, though some believe that to be a conservative guess. The prisoners are being held at various locations throughout the country, although exactly where these detention centers are is not public knowledge either.

The Pakistani government claims that its actions are law enforcement and not military, thus excusing their poor treatment of the prisoners. The US and our allies worry that this will not help gain favor from the Pakistan people, something we are in great need of right now. Without the Pakistani Public on our side, we risk creating even more insurgents. We need to make the Pakistani Military understand how crucial this is to stopping the insurgency.