Isa Khan (Guantanamo detainee 23)
Isa Khan | |
|---|---|
| Born | Bannu District, North West Frontier Province, Pakistan |
| Occupation | Homeopathic doctor |
| Known for | Former Guantanamo detainee |
Isa Khan is a Pakistani national who was subjected to extrajudicial detention at the United States’ Guantanamo Bay facility in Cuba. His assigned Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 23.
On July 6, 2010, Pakistani authorities arrested him once more in Bannu, accusing him of rejoining the Taliban and reportedly serving as a commander within a group connected to bomb attacks.
Time magazine article
In October 2002, Isa Khan appeared in an article published by Time magazine. The letter he wrote from Guantanamo, which reached his family nearly a year after his capture, was among the earliest detainee correspondences made public. The letter opened with: His relatives described him as a practitioner of homeopathic medicine who had traveled to Mazar-i-Sharif with his newlywed wife to visit her family when conflict erupted, leading to his detention by Northern Alliance forces due to his Pashtun background.
Human Rights Watch letter
Human Rights Watch sent a letter to President General Pervez Musharraf urging the U.S. administration under President Bush to release detainees who were either Taliban soldiers or had no links to al-Qaeda and were not charged with serious crimes. The letter referenced Khan as a "homeopathic doctor from Bannu District in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province," whom both American and Pakistani officials privately recognized as having no connections to the Taliban or al-Qaeda.
Repatriation and Pakistani detention
Following his return to Pakistan, Khan was detained and investigated by local security agencies. Pakistani officials granted him a form of extrajudicial conditional release, which differed from formal judicial parole since no criminal proceedings or trials were ever initiated by either U.S. or Pakistani authorities.
In an article dated January 7, 2006, from the Houston Chronicle, Khan revealed that he had considered suicide due to continuous surveillance imposed by the Pakistani government.
McClatchy interview
On June 15, 2008, McClatchy News Service released interviews with 66 former Guantanamo detainees, including Issa Khan. He confirmed that his father-in-law served as a Taliban-appointed judge and that he was returned to Pakistani custody in September 2004 during the Combatant Status Review Tribunal process.
Pakistani interrogators informed him of his wife’s death in 2001 and the disappearance of his infant son. Upon reviewing his security files held by Pakistani authorities, it was shown that suspicions of Taliban affiliation had been dismissed.
Khan stated he was apprehended at a police checkpoint in Pakistan rather than on an active battlefield. He recounted experiencing mistreatment by both Pakistani captors and U.S. forces in Afghanistan, including humiliations involving female interrogators. In retaliation, he and other detainees responded by throwing bodily fluids at their guards.
Pentagon claim he had "reengaged in terrorism"
On May 20, 2009, the New York Times reported—citing an unreleased Pentagon document—that Department of Defense officials identified Isa Khan among 74 former Guantanamo detainees "suspected" of having "engaged in terrorism or militant activity." Subsequently, on May 27, 2009, the Defense Intelligence Agency published a fact sheet titled "Former Guantanamo Detainee Terrorism Trends," which named Isa Khan as suspected of having "reengaged in terrorism." The document linked him with alleged ties to Tehrik-i-Taliban.