We are being tortured

The students, in their 20s and from the US state of Virginia, were detained last month. Police produced them before an anti-terrorism court on Monday after completing their interrogation.

               

“We are being tortured, we are being tortured,” several of the men shouted in English from a prison van as it left a court in Sargodha town in eastern Pakistan after their hearing, which took place under tight security.

Jehangir Sarwar, a senior lawyer present in the courtroom, quoted one of the five men as complaining of “police excesses”. Sarwar, who was in the court as an observer and was not representing anyone, did not say which of the five men made the remark, while police officials denied that mistreatment was raised during the brief hearing.

“None of the five men said anything of the sort in the court. As far as I know, one of these men had a stomach problem,” said Aamir Abbas, a local police official who worked on the case.

Police officials said emails showed the suspects had contacted the Taliban, and that the militant group had planned to use them for attacks in Pakistan. Police also had told court the five men had been in contact with an al Qaeda operative identified as just Saifullah. The suspects told the court in their last hearing on Jan. 4 that they had no plans to carry out attacks in Pakistan and they had only wanted to give fellow Muslims in Afghanistan financial and medical aid.

The next hearing will be on Feb. 2.