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Zia Ul Shah (; born 5 January 1975) is a Pakistani citizen best known for the time he spent in
extrajudicial detention Administrative detention is arrest and detention of individuals by the state without trial. A number of jurisdictions claim that it is done for security reasons. Many countries claim to use administrative detention as a means to combat terrorism ...
in the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
Guantanamo Bay detention camp The Guantanamo Bay detention camp, also known as GTMO ( ), GITMO ( ), or simply Guantanamo Bay, is a United States military prison within Naval Station Guantanamo Bay (NSGB), on the coast of Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. It was established in 2002 by p ...
s, in
Cuba Cuba, officially the Republic of Cuba, is an island country, comprising the island of Cuba (largest island), Isla de la Juventud, and List of islands of Cuba, 4,195 islands, islets and cays surrounding the main island. It is located where the ...
. His Guantanamo Internment Serial Number was 15. Ul Shah was a delivery driver for the
Taliban , leader1_title = Supreme Leader of Afghanistan, Supreme leaders , leader1_name = {{indented plainlist, * Mullah Omar{{Natural Causes{{nbsp(1994–2013) * Akhtar Mansour{{Assassinated (2015–2016) * Hibatullah Akhundzada (2016–present) ...
in Afghanistan's
Kunduz Province Kunduz () is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the northern part of the country next to Tajikistan. The population of the province is around 1,136,677, which is mostly a tribal society; it is one of Afghanistan's most ethnically ...
, who was captured in 2001. transferred to Pakistan on 11 October 2006.


Background

Ul Shah travelled to Afghanistan in 2000 in search of work. The reigning Taliban government was in short supply of drivers for transport purposes and Ul Shah was hired as he owned a truck. Ul Shah was able to negotiate the terms of his contract, refusing to transport militants to fighting locations. He was instead put in charge of a route to supply a Taliban base in
Kunduz Kunduz (; ; ) is a city in northern Afghanistan and the capital of Kunduz Province. The city has an estimated population of about 268,893 as of 2015, making it about the List of cities in Afghanistan, seventh largest city of Afghanistan, and the ...
, primarily delivering food. In October 2001, Ul Shah was stopped by
Northern Alliance The Northern Alliance ( ''Da Šumāl E'tilāf'' or ''Ettehād Šumāl''), officially known as the United National Front for the Salvation of Afghanistan ( ''Jabha-ye Muttahid-e barāye Afğānistān''), was a military alliance of groups that op ...
forces led by Punjabi troop commander Qari Saleem while on his usual delivery run. According to Ul Shah, he was not immediately detained, but obliged their request to transport several surrendered Taliban fighters for them to a compound in
Mazar-i-Sharif Mazar-i-Sharīf ( ; Dari and ), also known as Mazar-e Sharīf or simply Mazar, is the fifth-largest city in Afghanistan by population, with the estimates varying from 500,000-680,000. It is the capital of Balkh province and is linked by highway ...
, controlled by warlord
Abdul Rashid Dostum Abdul Rashid Dostum ( ; ; Uzbek language, Uzbek Uzbek alphabet, Latin: , Uzbek Uzbek alphabet, Cyrillic: , ; born 25 March 1954) is an Afghan former Officer (armed forces), military officer, warlord and exiled politician. He is the founder and ...
, in exchange for his freedom, which he said was a common arrangement for accosted Taliban drivers. At Dostum's camp, the Northern Alliance soldiers did not uphold their end of the deal because Ul Shah was a foreigner and that the group left Ul Shah behind as they bickered over ownership of his now-confiscated vehicle. Ul Shah was briefly sheltered and fed by an Afghan local, who kept him captive after Ul Shah told him that he was from Pakistan. Ul Shah was sold twice to other Afghans, one of whom severely beat the detainee and broke his nose, before being handed to U.S. military authorities in
Kandahar Kandahar is a city in Afghanistan, located in the south of the country on Arghandab River, at an elevation of . It is Afghanistan's second largest city, after Kabul, with a population of about 614,118 in 2015. It is the capital of Kandahar Pro ...
on 26 November.


Combatant Status Review

Ul Shah was among the 60% of prisoners who participated in the tribunal hearings. A Summary of Evidence memo was prepared for the tribunal of each detainee. The memo for his hearing lists the following allegations:


Administrative Review Board

Detainees whose
Combatant Status Review Tribunal The Combatant Status Review Tribunals (CSRT) were a set of tribunals for confirming whether detainees held by the United States at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp had been correctly designated as " enemy combatants". The CSRTs were establi ...
labeled them "enemy combatants" were scheduled for annual
Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose o ...
hearings. These hearings were designed to assess the threat a detainee might pose if released or transferred, and whether there were other factors that warranted his continued detention. Shah chose to participate in his Administrative Review Board hearing. Summarized transcript (.pdf) from Zia Ul Shah's ''
Administrative Review Board The Administrative Review Board is a United States military body that conducts an annual review of the detainees held by the United States in Camp Delta at the United States Navy base at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. The purpose o ...
hearing'' - page 1
''The following factors favor continued detention'' ''The following primary factors favor release or transfer''


Formerly secret Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment

On 25 April 2011, whistleblower organization
WikiLeaks WikiLeaks () is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by ...
published formerly secret assessments drafted by Joint Task Force Guantanamo analysts. His 5 page Joint Task Force Guantanamo assessment was drafted on. It was signed by camp commandant Brigadier General Jay W. Hood. He recommended transfer to another country for continued detention. The assessment noted an earlier assessment had recommended release or transfer, but that new information escalated concern.


McClatchy News Service interview

On 15 June 2008, the
McClatchy News Service McClatchy Media Company, or simply McClatchy and MCC, is an American publishing company incorporated under Delaware's General Corporation Law. Originally based in Sacramento, California, United States, and known as The McClatchy Company, it b ...
published a series of articles based on interviews with 66 former Guantanamo captives.mirror
/ref> Zia Khalid Najib was one of the former captives who had an article profiling him. The McClatchy article quoted
Abdul Jabar Sabit Abdul Jabar Sabet (; 1945 – 26 January 2023) was an Afghan politician. In May 2006 Hamid Karzai appointed him Attorney General of Afghanistan. Life and career Sabet was an ethnic Pashtun. He was a long time aide to former Afghan Prime Mini ...
, the Attorney General of Afghanistan, who visited Guantanamo and had interview Zia Khalid Najib. The Attorney General commented on how the USA seemed to base its release decisions on how compliant captives were, while in custody. He noted that the USA had released senior Taliban leaders who complied with the camp rules, while continuing to hold low-level foot-soldiers, or innocent victims of mistaken identity, who did not comply. Zia Khalid Najib acknowledged that he had poor impulse control, and was routinely being punished by the guards provocations and Koran desecration: Zia Khalid Najib told his McClatchy interviewers that his first interrogators asked him about serving as one of Osama bin Laden's drivers—an allegation he denied. He confirmed he had driven low level Taliban fighters, but he had never driven anyone from Al Qaeda. He said that interrogators stopped asking him about driving Bin Laden, but that many of his later interrogation sessions consisted largely of personality clashes: The McClatchy article noted that among the justifications for Zia Khalid Najib's continued detention was that he knew senior Taliban members, and his rebuttal. He attributed these allegations to incompetent translation.


References


External links


McClatchy News Service - video
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ul Shah, Zia 1975 births People from Karachi Guantanamo detainees known to have been released Pakistani extrajudicial prisoners of the United States Living people