ISLAMABAD: An American citizen, blacklisted and deported
from the country in 2011 on charges of espionage, was arrested hours
after his arrival at Benazir Bhutto International Airport on Saturday
morning, the interior ministry said.
Interior Minister
Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan has ordered an investigation into the
circumstances surrounding the grant of a Pakistani visa to Matthew Craig
Barrett, the US citizen who was expelled from the country after he was
allegedly caught spying on sensitive installations.
Barrett
was picked up by FIA and police officials in a joint raid on a guest
house in the capital. A case has been registered against two FIA
immigration officials, Sub-Inspector Raja Asif and his son Ehteshamul
Haq. Ehtesham has been arrested, while raids were being conducted to
arrest his father, police sources said.
The minister has
already suspended an assistant director of the Federal Investigation
Agency (FIA), as well as immigration staff that were on duty when
Barrett was cleared by authorities at the airport. An interior ministry
statement said that action would also be initiated against officials at
the Pakistani consulate in Houston, who were responsible for issuing
him a visa.
Matthew Barrett was deported from Pakistan in 2011 on charges of espionage
The minister issued directions for the formation of a joint
investigation team for a thorough probe into the matter. The team, which
will be headed by Superintendent of Police (Investigation) retired
Captain Mohammad Ilyas, will consist of officers from the Inter-Services
Intelligence, Intelligence Bureau and FIA.
According to
documents seen by Dawn, Barrett was issued a multiple-entry visa,
stamped by Sajida Altaf Qazi, vice consul at the visa section in
Pakistan’s mission in Houston. The visa was issued on June 22 and is
good up to June 30, 2020, allowing Barrett to stay in the country for up
to one year at a time. Barrett’s passport, which is valid for 10 years,
would have expired on June 30, 2020, a week after his visa ran out.
Strike two
The
last time Barrett came to Pakistan, things did not go well for him. On
June 10, 2011, he was arrested at a residence in Islamabad’s Sector E-11
for overstaying his visa.
Police from the Fateh Jhang
area charged him under Section 123 of the Pakistan Penal Code — which
deals with ‘Concealing with intent to facilitate design to wage war’ —
claiming that he had been spotted in a high-security zone where
civilians were not allowed. They claimed that photographs and maps were
recovered from his possession.
He was subsequently deported and barred from entering Pakistan again.
At
the time, Barrett had claimed he had a Pakistani wife and two children,
and had been living with her family in Islamabad for at least three
years. Advocate Abdul Rehman, the man who claimed to be Barrett’s
father-in-law and represented him in court at the time, could not be
reached for comment.
When asked to comment on the matter,
a spokesperson for the US embassy in Islamabad said the Privacy Act
prohibited him from releasing any information about an American citizen
without his consent.
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