Author:
Publication: BBC News
Date: November 12, 2001
A British journalist who was deported
from Pakistan at the weekend says she believes the action may have been
triggered by her discovery of collusion between some Pakistani army officers
and the Taleban.
Sunday Telegraph reporter Christina
Lamb said authorities which deported her gave no explanation and detained
her for 18 hours without food. She told BBC News Online she was kept in
the dark about why she and photographer Justin Sutcliffe were sent home
from Islamabad on Saturday.
The pair had been detained by Pakistani
authorities since the early hours on Friday in the border city of Quetta.
Miss Lamb, 35, said they were woken in their hotel in the middle of the
night by five members of the military intelligence and two police officers.
She said they were driven to a railway
rest room and then flown to Islamabad, but not allowed to sleep, eat or
make contact with Britain until they were sent home the next day.
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw has
expressed concern about the deportation and plans to stay in contact with
Miss Lamb about any further representations to Pakistan.
Miss Lamb said she had uncovered
evidence of a covert operation by rogue elements in the Pakistani military
intelligence service to smuggle arms to the Taleban. But the deportation
order vaguely described the reason as "acting in a manner prejudicial to
the external affairs and security of Pakistan".
Miss Lamb said: "It's a matter of
huge concern that a country we are in alliance with in fighting for freedom,
is treating people in such a barbaric manner.
"To deport people without giving
them any chance to answer any charge that they are supposed to have done
is incredibly frustrating."
The Sunday Telegraph is planning
legal action against Pakistani newspapers that recently claimed the pair
had booked an airline ticket from Quetta in the name of Osama Bin Laden.
Miss Lamb, who has a two-year-old son called Lorenzo, said that was not
true and related to a throwaway remark she made to a travel agent who said
she could book a flight under a false name.
She said she thought the airline
ticket stories, which accused her of trying to prove Bin Laden was in Pakistan,
were the pretext for the deportation. Her son and boyfriend in Portugal
were worried about her safety after they were told by the hotel she had
checked out in the middle of the night.
Miss Lamb, who has been reporting
in Pakistan since 1987, said her detention was very frightening and made
her feel like a criminal. She said she thought it was probably the result
of her investigations into the allegedly pro-Taleban actions of the Pakistani
military intelligence.
Miss Lamb told BBC News Online:
"Even the spokesman for President Musharraf was shocked to hear about our
experience and other senior government officials knew nothing about it.
"This begs the question 'Is he really
in control of the military intelligence and who is actually running the
country?'"
Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic
Lawson said: "We have been given no reason for the deportations beyond
the vaguest generalities. "Christina was simply carrying out her duties
as a journalist."
Labour rebel MP Paul Marsden was
on a fact-finding mission in Pakistan when Miss Lamb was detained. She
said he helped to raise the alarm about her plight and may have helped
secure her freedom. Miss Lamb said she wanted to return to Pakistan to
continue her work as soon as possible.
