Islamabad: America has released the oldest and oldest prisoner of Guantanamo, 74-year-old Saifullah Paracha.
According to the statement issued by Foreign Office Spokesman Asim Iftikhar, Pakistani citizen Saifullah Paracha has returned home after being released from Guantanamo. As the Ministry of External Affairs completed a long and complex inter-agency process to facilitate his return, we are happy that a Pakistani prisoner held abroad has finally returned to his loved ones.
Saifullah Paracha was a wealthy businessman from Karachi who used to go to Afghanistan on business.
Saifullah Paracha was arrested at the airport by the American secret agency CIA in 2003 as soon as he arrived from Karachi to Bangkok and transferred to Bagram in Afghanistan. He was accused of supporting al-Qaeda. After being held at Bagram for a year, he was transferred to Guantanamo Bay prison in 2004.
Saifullah spent 19 years in US prison but was neither charged nor prosecuted. He also suffered two heart attacks while in custody.
America also arrested Saifullah’s son Uzair Paracha in New York in 2003 on the charge of helping Al-Qaeda. Uzair Paracha was released in 2020 after 17 years in prison and sent to Pakistan. Both father and son also had US citizenship.
