2004-06-28
Many in Pakistan sad, shocked over citizen taken hostage in Iraq
(APW_ENG_20040628.0266)
1) Pakistanis reacted with outrage and grief Monday after one of their citizens was taken hostage in Iraq by suspected insurgents, with some blaming the government for siding with the United States and others saying the kidnappers would not help their cause if they kill a fellow Muslim.
2) Pakistan's Foreign Ministry confirmed that Amjad Hafeez, from Rawalkot in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, was the man in a video released Sunday from Iraq in which his captors threatened to behead him within 72 hours.
3) Hafeez had been working as a driver in Kuwait, the ministry said.
4) Most Pakistanis are deeply against the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but the government has been one of Washington's biggest supporters in its war on terror. Many here voiced anger at President Gen. Pervez Musharraf for that position, saying that Hafeez was now paying the price.
5) Nasir Hussain, a restaurant owner in the southern port city of Karachi, said he was surprised that the insurgents had stopped distinguishing between Americans and fellow Muslims.
6) "Being on the side of America has increased dangers for our country abroad and at home," said Hussain, a reference to the string of attacks on Westerners in Pakistan since Musharraf threw his support behind Washington after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States.
7) Others condemned the kidnappers as terrorists and said they were shocked that they would threaten to kill a simple man for the policies of his government.
8) "I cannot believe it. I never thought Iraqis could be enemies of Pakistanis," said Sumaira Anwar, a 30-year-old housewife in the eastern city of Lahore.
9) Added Mazhar Iqbal, a 45-year-old businessman in Lahore: "I don't believe in killing people for religion. The captors of the Pakistani are simply terrorists."
10) In the video, three masked men said the Pakistani would be beheaded within three days if Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody are not released.
11) The Pakistani hostage displayed an identification card issued by the U.S. company Kellogg, Brown & Root.
12) One of Hafeez's relatives condemned his captivity as "total terrorism" and demanded he be released.
13) "What will they get out of killing a Muslim brother?" asked Mohammed Razzaq Khan, 55, an uncle of Hafeez who lives in Rawalpindi, a city near Islamabad.
14) Khan also called on the United States to pull its troops out of Iraq. "It has no right to come to a Muslim country and commit killings there," he told The Associated Press.
15) In the video, Hafeez, 26, urged Musharraf to close the Pakistani Embassy in Iraq and ban all Pakistanis from coming to Iraq.
16) The Foreign Ministry said it would not give in to any of the kidnappers' demands.
17) "The government of Pakistan reiterates its condemnation of all forms of terrorism and reaffirms that its policy is not to accede to conditions or demands put forth by any hostage-takers," a ministry statement said.
18) Liaqat Baluch, a lawmaker from the six-party religious opposition, condemned the kidnapping, but also called on Pakistanis not to work with the Americans in Iraq.
19) "Our sympathies are with him and we pray for his well-being," Baluch said.
20) The United States has asked Pakistan to send peacekeepers to Iraq. The government has said it would consider it only if they are asked by the incoming Iraqi government and the mission is under the aegis of the United Nations.



2004-06-29
Mother of Pakistani hostage in Iraq appeals for release of her son
(APW_ENG_20040629.0185)
1) The mother of a Pakistani man taken hostage in Iraq said Tuesday her son had done nothing wrong and tearfully pleaded with insurgents not to go through with their threat to behead him.
2) The woman, Saeeda Jan, traveled to the Pakistani capital from her home in Kashmir. She said her son, who was working as a driver in Iraq, was the family's only hope against poverty.
3) Pakistan's Foreign Ministry on Monday confirmed that the man, Amjad Hafeez, was the person in a video shown by an Arab television Sunday.
4) His captors have threatened to decapitate him within 72 hours if Iraqis held in U.S. custody are not freed.
5) Jan traveled from her mountain village, Parati Panyola, in Pakistan's portion of Kashmir to seek government help in gaining her son's release.
6) "What else can a mother feel? I am worried for my son," said Jan, her 13-year daughter, Asma Hafeez, sitting next to her, as she spoke with reporters. "I appeal to them to free my child. He is the only support of our family."
7) Insurgents freed three Turkish men in Iraq on Tuesday, saying they were spared because they are Muslims. That has raised hope that Hafeez, who is Muslim, might also be spared.
8) It is unknown, however, whether the Pakistani man was being held by the same group that released the Turks.
9) Pakistanis, many of whom were deeply against the U.S. military campaign in Iraq, have reacted with shock over Hafeez's kidnapping. Many say the killing of a fellow Muslim would not help the rebels' cause.
10) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf was a key ally of the U.S. in the war against terrorism, though he has largely sidestepped questions over his government's position on Iraq. The government has said it would consider sending peacekeeping troops if requested by the new Iraqi government, and if they served under United Nations command.
11) In the video, Hafeez displayed an identification card issued by the U.S. company Kellogg, Brown & Root. He urged Musharraf to close the Pakistani Embassy in Iraq and ban all Pakistanis from coming to the country. The government has said it will not fulfill the kidnappers' demands.



2004-06-30
Human right activists appeal for release of Pakistani hostage in Iraq
(APW_ENG_20040630.0282)
1) Dozens of human right activists protested Wednesday against the kidnapping of a Pakistani civilian in Iraq and appealed for his release in the name of "humanity and Islam."
2) Pakistan's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that Amjad Hafeez was the man shown in a video released over the weekend from Iraq in which his captors threatened to behead him within 72 hours if Iraqi prisoners in U.S. custody were not released.
3) That ultimatum was to expire later Wednesday.
4) Insurgents freed three Turkish men in Iraq on Tuesday, saying they were spared because they are Muslims. That has raised hope that Hafeez, who is also Muslim, might be spared.
5) On Wednesday, Pakistan's parliament unanimously adopted a resolution urging Hafeez's abductors to release him.
6) "We appeal to the kidnappers of Amjad Hafeez to free him," said Maulana Fazlur Rahman in a resolution, which enjoyed the backing of all members of the National Assembly or lower house of parliament.
7) Rahman is a hardline opposition leader, and he had organized protest rallies against the United States in Pakistan when coalition forces entered Iraq to topple Saddam Hussein's government.
8) Earlier, about 100 human right activists gathered in Multan, a major city in Pakistan's eastern Punjab province, to call for the release of Hafeez, a driver for an American company.
9) "Those who kidnapped Amjad Hafeez are Muslims, and we appeal to them to release Hafeez in the name of humanity and Islam," said Rashid Rahman, the head of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
10) In the video, Hafeez displayed an identification card issued by the U.S. company Kellogg, Brown & Root. He urged Musharraf to close the Pakistani Embassy in Iraq and ban all Pakistanis from coming to the country.
11) Pakistan is a key ally of the United States in the war against terrorism, but it has refused to send troops to Iraq, saying Pakistan would only consider sending peacekeeping troops under U.N. command if requested by the new Iraqi government.
12) Pakistan's government says it is handling the issue with utmost care.



2004-07-01
As grim deadline passes, Pakistanis pray for hostage held in Iraq
(APW_ENG_20040701.0136)
1) As a grim deadline passed for a Pakistani man held captive in Iraq, his family and countrymen prayed Thursday for his safe release, while religious leaders urged the militants holding him not to behead a fellow Muslim.
2) There was no immediate word on the fate of Amjad Hafeez, a Pakistani driver working for the U.S. firm Kellogg, Brown & Root. Hafeez was shown in a video Sunday in which his captors threatened to cut off his head within 72 hours unless Pakistan closes its embassy in Iraq and orders all of its citizens home.
3) The deadline passed late Wednesday. The government has vowed not to give in to the kidnappers' demands.
4) "We appeal to them not to target a Pakistani Muslim citizen," said Maulana Samiul Haq, a senator and member of a coalition of conservative Islamic political parties. "Islam does not allow that a Muslim be caught and killed at the hands of another Muslim."
5) Hafeez's mother traveled to the capital, Islamabad, on Tuesday from a small village in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir. She pleaded with the kidnappers not to kill her son, who she said was the family's only source of income.
6) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf also called on the captors to release Hafeez, and questioned their claims to act in the name of Islam.
7) "He (Hafeez) is perhaps a better Muslims than them. They should ... listen to the voice of his mother and sisters," the president said Thursday. "They also have mothers and sisters. They should not be cruel to him."
8) Pakistanis, most of whom are deeply against the U.S. campaign in Iraq, have reacted with shock and outrage to the kidnapping of Hafeez.
9) "As a Muslim, I appeal to them not to be as barbaric as they have been before. It is not bravery to kill an unarmed man," said Abdur Rahim Khan, 37, a phone company employee in the southern port city of Karachi. "They should not do this to a man who is there only to earn his livelihood."
10) Musharraf is one of Washington's greatest allies in the war on terrorism. But Pakistan has been less supportive of the war in Iraq. It has refused so far to send peacekeeping troops, saying it would only consider doing so if they were part of a United Nations mission, not part of the American-led coalition.



2004-07-02
Iraqi insurgents free Pakistani hostage
(APW_ENG_20040702.0328)
1) Iraqi insurgents freed a Pakistani hostage they had threatened to behead unless Pakistan closed its embassy here and ordered all its citizens home, Pakistani authorities announced Friday.
2) Amjad Hafeez, a driver for an American company doing business with U.S. forces, was contacted his family and told them he had already reached Kuwait, Pakistan's information minister, Sheikh Rashid Ahmed, told The Associated Press in Islamabad.
3) Ahmed gave no details on how, when or why Hafeez was released, saying only that Pakistani diplomats played an important role in gaining Hafeez's release. Pakistani President Gen. Pervez Musharraf had refused the kidnappers' demands and told them to release Hafeez, whom he called a "better Muslim" than his captors.
4) Last Sunday, the Arabic language satellite station Al-Arabiya broadcast a tape showing Hafeez held by four armed masked men who threatened to behead him within three days unless Americans freed prisoners held at Abu Ghraib and three cities of central Iraq _ Balad, Dujail and Samarra.
5) The gunmen said they captured the Pakistani near the U.S. base at Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad. They did not say whether they were affiliated with any group,
6) The kidnapping of Hafeez angered many in Pakistan, who said that killing a fellow Muslim would not help the insurgents' cause. Three Turkish Muslims who had been kidnapped in Iraq were released Tuesday in the wake of criticism within the Muslim world about insurgents' threats to kill them.
7) In an interview with AP, Hafeez's mother, Saeeda Jan, thanked everyone who helped win her son's release and thanked and his captors for sparing his life.
8) "He is well, and I am thankful to God Almighty and all those who helped me to secure the release of my son," she said. "I am also thankful to those who freed him."
9) More than 40 people from several countries have been abducted in Iraq since April, many of them released or freed by coalition soldiers.
10) On Monday, militants released a video that apparently showed them killing a captive American soldier with a gunshot to the head. The captors identified their hostage as Spc. Keith M. Maupin, 20, of Batavia, Ohio.
11) U.S. Marine Cpl. Wassef Ali Hassoun has been reportedly abducted by an insurgent group, which announced his kidnapping in a videotape to Al-Jazeera television. The U.S. military said Hassoun, of Lebanese descent, had not been seen since late June and changed his status from missing to captured.
12) __
13) Associated Press correspondent Munir Ahmad contributed to this report from Islamabad, Pakistan.



2004-07-04
Freed Pakistani hostage says insurgents released him for his mother
(APW_ENG_20040704.0145)
1) A Pakistani man who had been held hostage in Iraq by insurgents said Sunday he was freed for the sake of his mother.
2) Amjad Hafeez, a driver for an American company working with U.S. forces, was released Friday after nearly a week in captivity. Rebels had threatened to behead him. He gave an interview to Pakistan's private Geo television network from Kuwait, which neighbors Iraq.
3) Hafeez said none of his captors told him they were releasing him because he was a Muslim, but recounted one as saying, "You are being freed for your mother."
4) His mother, Saeeda Jan, had been pleading for his release through media interviews saying he was the family's only hope against poverty.
5) Hafeez said that as a Muslim he had had not been afraid of being captured by insurgents in Iraq, and had broken company rules by venturing outside his base without permission.
6) "I could not live in a confined place like a jail," Hafeez said.
7) He said his captors had beaten him and spoken to him in Arabic, which he didn't understand.
8) Hafeez said he was looking forward to going back to Pakistan to see his mother.
9) "I am feeling easy. It feels amazing to see a new life. I am trying to make a new life," he said.
10) Last Sunday, the Arabic-language Al-Arabiya television network broadcast a video showing Hafeez held by three masked gunmen, who threatened to decapitate him unless Iraqi prisoners were freed. The gunmen said they captured the Pakistani near a U.S. base at Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad.



2004-07-05
Freed Pakistani hostage says he would go back to Iraq, but wants to go home first
(APW_ENG_20040705.0217)
1) A Pakistani driver who was kidnapped in Iraq for a week said Monday he would go back to the country, but first he had to spend time with his mother in Kashmir, who made a moving appeal for his release.
2) "I want to see my mother ... I want to go home" for a short period, Amjad Hafeez, 26, told The Associated Press in an interview a day after the Americans flew him to Kuwait.
3) Militants abducted Hafeez from his company car north of Baghdad on July 25 and held him for seven days. They released a video threatening to decapitate him unless all Iraqi prisoners were freed, but on Friday they changed their minds and freed him on the road between Baghdad and Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of the capital.
4) His mother, Saeeda Jan, who lives in the village of Rawalakot in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, had pleaded for his release in media interviews, saying he was Muslim and her family's sole income-earner.
5) Explaining why he would return to Iraq if his company required it, Hafeez said: "I need work."
6) The company provides catering services and living quarters for the U.S. military and American companies working in Iraq.
7) Hafeez admitted he broke company rules when he drove out of the company camp on July 25 and went for an excursion in the Balad area. On the way back, four vehicles converged on his car and stopped him. The occupants put a gun to his head, forced him into one of their vehicles, and blindfolded him.
8) Hafeez said initially he was driven around for hours. He was detained in two places. His captors beat him when he failed to answer their questions. They spoke in Arabic, a language he does not understand.
9) But he managed to discern two things: the kidnappers were angry that he was working in Iraq, and finally they said they were releasing him for the sake of his mother.
10) Hafeez said he was always blindfolded. His hands were tied, except at meals and Muslim prayer times.
11) Iraq has seen a spate of kidnappings of foreigners in recent months. Some hostages were executed _ such as an American and a South Korean _ but most were released, often after the payment of ransom.
12) Hafeez said that on his release on Friday, he was very happy to see sunlight.
13) "I can laugh again," he said.
14) His Kuwaiti-based company is giving him time off to go home and he is expected to fly to Pakistan in few days.
15) de-jbm



2004-07-09
Freed Pakistani hostage says his Iraqi captors thought he was CIA agent
(APW_ENG_20040709.0094)
1) A Pakistani man held hostage in Iraq for a week said Friday that his captors beat him for three days because they thought he was an American CIA agent.
2) Amjad Hafeez, who worked as a driver for an American company working with U.S. forces, was kidnapped on June 27 and threatened with beheading. However, the militants released him on July 2 because he was a Muslim and following tearful pleas from his mother.
3) Hafeez, 26, returned to Pakistan Friday and hugged his mother, Saeeda Jan, and other family members who greeted him at Islamabad airport.
4) "They (kidnappers) thought I am a CIA agent. But, I told them that I am a Pakistani and a Muslim," Hafeez told reporters on his return from Kuwait.
5) "During the first three days, I was beaten, kept in a windowless small room, which was like a dungeon," he said. "But, they started behaving well after three days when they knew that I am not a CIA man."
6) After Hafeez was kidnapped near a U.S. base at Balad, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Baghdad, insurgents released a video threatening to decapitate him unless all Iraqi prisoners were freed.
7) In the video, Hafeez urged Pakistan's President Gen. Pervez Musharraf to close the Pakistani Embassy in Iraq and ban all Pakistanis from going to the Middle East nation.
8) Pakistan, a key ally of the United States in its war on terror, refused to accept the demands, but urged kidnappers not to harm him.
9) Hafeez said he was freed him because he was a Muslim and after the militants saw his tearful mother begging for his life on television.
10) "I got this new life because of my mother's prayers," he said.
11) "I am grateful to God almighty that he gave me a new life," he said. "I am also thankful to all those who prayed for my life, or who helped my family at a difficult time."
12) His mother, Jan, who lives in the village of Rawalakot in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, had used the media to plead for her son's release, saying he was Muslim and her family's sole income-earner.
13) On Friday, cheerful Jan said, "I am so happy because my son has come back."



2004-07-10

2004-07-27
Pakistani leaders appeal to Iraqi kidnappers to free their citizens
(APW_ENG_20040727.0152)
1) Pakistan's president and prime minister appealed to Iraqi kidnappers on Tuesday to release two Pakistani citizens threatened with death, and the government said the laws of Islam and humanity precluded the killing of innocents.
2) The kidnapped Pakistanis, Sajid Naeem, 29, a driver and Raja Azad, 49, an engineer, worked for Kuwait's Al-Tamimi group and went missing Friday after a convoy of trucks they were traveling in was attacked in Iraq.
3) President Gen. Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain issued the joint appeal in a statement given to state-run Associated Press of Pakistan, saying the two men were "economic immigrants, working abroad to earn a livelihood for their poor families."
4) Foreign Ministry spokesman Masood Khan added that the men "have nothing to do with international politics."
5) "It is a sin to kill an innocent person," he told reporters.
6) The hostage takers, a group calling itself the Islamic Army of Iraq, claim the men are working for U.S. forces and have sentenced them to death. They warned Pakistan not to send peacekeeping troops to Iraq, something this conservative Islamic nation has said it would consider, but only under a U.N. mandate and at the request of the Iraqi government.
7) "Pakistan has not taken any decision to contribute peacekeeping troops to Iraq," Khan said.
8) However, Pakistan is involved in the drive to bring stability to Iraq. A senior Pakistani diplomat, Ashraf Jehangir Qazi, has been named special envoy to Iraq for U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and will be overseeing the peacekeeping effort.
9) Foreign Minister Khursheed Kasuri made similar assurances on Tuesday to lawmakers, who unanimously backed a resolution calling on the kidnappers to release the Pakistanis.
10) "This house expresses deep concern over the kidnapping of the two Pakistanis in Iraq and threats to their lives," said the resolution, introduced by opposition lawmaker Raja Pervez Ashraf.
11) Pakistan, an Islamic nation of 150 million people and a member of the U.N. Security Council, has been a key ally of the United States in its war on terror in Afghanistan, but the country's leadership has been less supportive of the U.S. role in Iraq.
12) The overwhelming majority of Pakistanis were against the U.S.-led war in Iraq, and oppose sending their nation's soldiers.
13) Khan said thousands of Pakistanis work in the Persian Gulf region to earn enough money to support their families. He said the hostage-takers "should know that the two hostages, held by them, are from the fraternal Islamic country of Pakistan, whose people feel deeply for their Iraqi brothers and sisters and pray that Iraq would come out of its current crisis."
14) The families of the two Pakistanis have pleaded with their captors to release them in the name of Islam.
15) In June, Iraqi insurgents kidnapped and threatened to behead another Pakistani, Amjad Hafeez, but he was later freed.