MOBILE, AlabamaI, 16 October — Arabs and Muslims in the US continue to be harassed and interrogated in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on World Trade Center in New York and Pentagon in Washington.
Asharq Al-Awsat, a sister publication of Arab News, reports today how Hasanain Jawad, a Pakistani student was tortured in the aftermath of the attacks. He was picked up from a bus station in Mobile, Alabama while traveling to New York from Houston. According to the newspaper, the boy was taken to an Alabama prison and placed in a cell where he was beaten badly and his tooth broken and ears damaged. While he cried for help his cellmates kicked him and punched him calling him a terrorist. The jail guards refused to intervene.
It took hours before he was taken to a first aid unit where he was given an ice pack and aspirin. Jawad was later shifted to a New Orleans prison where he spent 3 days. "I did not say or do anything to deserve such treatment," said Jawad writhing in pain.
The FBI and district attorney in the state of Alabama are looking into the matter. The chief of police in Stone County, however, claimed that Jawad brought it on himself by making some insulting remarks about the US.
