A senior Washington-based Pakistani journalist, Nayyar Zaidi, has been under detention in the United States, since March, for reasons not known, his wife and a local website said.
Zaidi has been living in Virginia for more than 20 years now. He is a well renowned columnist for a major Pakistani newspaper, and a political analyst/commentator both for CNN and BBC Urdu, and several other world media.
Ms Shaheen, wife of Nayayar Zaidi, has informed the Washington-based Pakistani journalists and sent them some documents for review and publication. These include copies of correspondents Zaidi had with the Department of Justice and FBI, along with some hand written notes, observations, by Nayyar himself. Nayyar has been kept in detention in Ohio, according to a website.
He told the website that he had gone to Ohio as part of his journalistic 'obstruction of justice' research against individuals from 'all over the world', being held there under 'anti-terrorism' and related laws. but ended up being detained in the same facility. He is awaiting trial now.
He said that he has been "targeted", and the "story" goes back to 1995. According to Nayyar, he was first visited by Feds (FBI) in 2003, and was asked to "become an informant", which he refused.
He then pursued the matter and, according to him, he has a case against them for "obstruction of justice" and "due process of law". The Press Attache at the Pakistan Embassy in Washington, Nadeem Kiani, said he found out about Nayyar 's detention only on Sunday from Ambassador Hussain Haqaani, who found it out from Pakistan.
According to Kiani, Haqqani is concerned for Nayyar's welfare. Both were unaware that Zaidi has been in detention for more than three months now. Interesting!
Courtesy: DAILY.Pk
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