Kamal Pariyar

As Tilak Bahadur Thapa Magar entered a cell in the ´Political Block´ of the Kabul jail housing mostly deadly-looking Taliban men, religious extremists and convicted murderers, he felt hopeless, helpless and also restless.

Thapa frequently tried to cry out aloud that "jail is not for people like me... I am innocent.” He would burst into tears thinking of his family and his country. But his voice was lost in the heavily fortified gates and thick, high walls.

Thapa, 34, who was originally from Bandipur-5 in Tanahun District, was wrongly jailed for 20 years on the charge of supplying information to Pakistani intelligence. He returned home after spending the last two years in the Afghan prison, following clemency exercised by Afghan President Hamid Karzai upon the request of the Nepal government.

Relating his life in jail Thapa, who arrived in Kathmandu on Sunday evening, takes a long breath while seated on a sofa at his residence at Dhapashi, Kathmandu. “I am lucky, I was shown compassion by so many, that´s why I am back home safe.”

He says he has no words to thank Nepal´s embassy in Pakistan for its diplomatic efforts over almost a year, as well as journalists and some international organizations, for bringing him justice.

Sitting beside his wife Juna, Thapa frequently recalled General Bismillaha Hamidi, the director general of the Afghan jail. It was he who informed Thapa about the positive signs over his fate.

Thapa had reached Afghanistan on February 28, 2006 to work for a catering business. The deal was that he would be paid US dollars 500 per month, but later he had to join the National Construction and Logistic company, he said.

Impressed by his hard work, he was later appointed security supervisor at a US-based company, Contract International Transport. He was again promoted and then transferred to another branch of the company as in-charge of the security department, he explained.

But late in the evening of April 14, 2011, five people from the National Directorate of Security (NDS) came enquiring about a Pakistani namely Mohammad Asgar, who had been in Afghanistan since 2006 and was working for the same company. They claimed that he had been living in Afghanistan with a fake identity card, he said. “That turned into the arrest of six Afghan citizens, the Pakistani and myself,” he said.

Four days after his arrest, the interrogations began, but with ´no proper´ interpreter to explain what he said to them, he added. “Are you from Lahore?” they asked as they began the interrogation.

Unfortunately, Asgar, the Pakistani was made to confess that they had been working together for Pakistani intelligence, he said, adding he later came to learn that torture was used to get the confession. Unfortunately also, a photo taken during a celebration some months earlier at a garage showed bullet-proof walls in the background, and that aroused suspicion that they were from foreign intelligence, he added.

For 18 days he was kept alone in a cell. Later he was happy to be with the others who were arrested along with him, he recounted. On May 17, the first court appearance took place but they were not allowed to hire private lawyers, he said adding that he was not given a chance to talk to his family by phone or to officials of the company where he had worked.

Later, he was surprised to learn that some agents close to their lawyers were in contact with his family in Nepal about his release from jail on the payment of US dollars 12,000. “Pleading my innocence in the Afghan courts got me nowhere and a court in Helmand province convicted me of espionage and handed down 16 years in prison. Later, the Afghan supreme court increased the sentence by four years.

Following the failure of the court case and given that there was no possibility of appeal against the verdict, the Nepal government actively pursued diplomatic efforts for his release, he said.

“While in jail I had promised myself that I wouldn´t go abroad again but I may change my mind if I get a good opportunity with the same company," he said. However, he would never go back to Afghanistan, he said.

Published on: 16 July 2013 | Republica