Letter from a Secret Jail
In a strange way, the "war on terror" may have claimed another victim, at least for now and perhaps forever.
Safdar Sarki, who earned his medical degree in Pakistan, is a member of the World Sindhi Congress. The congress seeks greater influence for the Sindhi ethnic minority in Pakistan's Sindh Province.
In February 2006, police and intelligence officers arrested Dr. Sarki at his sister's apartment in Karachi, Pakistan, and he joined the world's army of the disappeared.
Dr. Sarki remained with the disappeared until last fall, when a letter from him somehow made its way to Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Chief Justice of Pakistan's Supreme Court. In the letter, Dr. Sarki described "complete isolation with a strip of black cloth on my eyes when outside, otherwise in a dark, stuffy and small gravelike cell in severe heat and severe cold. For 24 hours I am handcuffed except 15 minutes during a toilet break."
Dr. Sarki had found himself among an estimated 4000 prisoners in President Pervez Musharraf's secret detention network. An article by Jane Perlez in the January 18, 2008, New York Times provided few details about this network. Some prisoners are suspected terrorists. Some are not. Officials announced no charges against Dr. Sarki after his arrest. That's how secret jails remain secrets.
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