Prisoner alleges Holy Quran desecration
ISLAMABAD: An Afghan who spent three years at Guantanamo Bay prison said on Tuesday that interrogators at the centre frequently desecrated the QUran, which prompted a hunger strike and a US apology.
Abdul Rahim, 40, said during an interview on AVT Khyber television, a Pashto-language private channel, that abuse of the holy book was routine. "Abuse of the Quran was done routinely particularly in the early days of detention," Rahim said. His claims could not be independently verified.
"They would throw the holy book on the ground, trample upon it and tell the prisoner under interrogation no one could stop them from doing that. The news of sacrilege sent shockwaves among the prisoners and all of us went on a hunger strike. We declined to participate in the interrogation and also did not eat anything for many days," he said. Rahim, according to the interviewer, said the hunger strike ended only after senior American officials apologised for the desecration.
"All of us ended the hunger strike except for a Palestinian. It was due to our efforts and sacrifices that we restored the honour of the Quran," he said.
The interview follows a retraction from Newsweek magazine, which alleged desecration of the Quran by Guantanamo interrogators and this had included throwing a copy of the holy book into a toilet to rattle Muslim prisoners. The report sparked a storm of protests throughout the Muslim world. In Afghanistan 14 people were killed. Rahim said he had arrived back in Pakistan after he was freed from Camp X-Ray last month. He was captured in Peshawar by Pakistani intelligence in 2001 and handed over to US custody.
Rahim also said prisoners were kept in harsh conditions and in cages. "The cages were made of steel and also the beds on which we used to sleep. At times we created lots of noise by thumping the steel cages that would disturb the Americans." Rahim said often when Americans walked though the passage between the cages prisoners would spit on them. One prisoner threw a glass of urine on them also, he said.