(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release: PAKISTAN RSF correspondent visited Amardeep Bassey in prison RSF calls for the release of the journalist and his guides British journalist Amardeep Bassey, arrested six days ago by the authorities in Pakistan, was transferred to Peshawar this morning, 16 May 2002, together with his two guides, […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is an RSF press release:
PAKISTAN
RSF correspondent visited Amardeep Bassey in prison
RSF calls for the release of the journalist and his guides
British journalist Amardeep Bassey, arrested six days ago by the authorities in Pakistan, was transferred to Peshawar this morning, 16 May 2002, together with his two guides, for further questioning. He will be seen by police and members of Pakistan’s secret service (ISI). He is being held in a military area in the centre of Peshawar.
The correspondent for Reporters Without Borders (Reporters sans frontières RSF) in Pakistan, Iqbal Khattak, spoke to British journalist Amardeep Bassey in his prison cell in Landi Kotal (50 km west of Peshawar, in Pakistan’s North West Frontier Province, NWFP) on 15 May 2002. The Sunday Mercury reporter confirmed that he was in good health, but had undergone extensive questioning and was being harassed by the security services, who suspect him of spying for India. Amardeep Bassey told RSF’s correspondent: “I am OK, don’t worry. I am in good hands; not those of the authorities of course, but of the people who are with me here in the jail [â¦] My Pakistani guides, and their families, are my only hope in overcoming these difficult moments.”
The British journalist of Indian origin refused to comment on the questioning to which he had been subjected by the Pakistani security services, but confirmed that he had not been ill-treated. “They asked me very detailed questions; sometimes the same question for several hours [â¦] They asked me when I last travelled to India and the name of my village,” explained Amardeep Bassey, a British citizen whose family is of Sikh origin.
Amardeep Bassey also explained why his passport did not have an exit visa from Pakistan. “When I returned to Afghanistan with my two guides, I asked them where the frontier checkpoint was. They told me that we were already in Afghanistan.”
The organisation that defends press freedom has once again urged the Pakistani authorities to release Amardeep Bassey immediately, together with his two Pakistani guides Naoshad Ali Afridi and Khitab Shah Shinwari. “It is imperative that the Interior Minister intervenes without delay, to ensure that the responsible NWFP authorities release the journalist and sort out his situation. In the past, a number of journalists have entered or exited Pakistan without having their passport stamped, and the authorities have always managed to find a quick solution to this purely administrative problem,” said Robert Ménard, RSF Secretary-General. The organisation has also asked the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office to intervene to obtain the release of Amardeep Bassey and his two guides.
