Saturday, April 29, 2006
SONYA FATAH
Special to The Globe and Mail
A Newmarket man who was detained for five weeks as a threat to Canada’s security — and then released this week when federal lawyers dropped the allegation — accused prison and security officials yesterday of abusing and harassing him during his time at the Toronto West Detention Centre.
Raja Ghulam Murtaza spoke at a news conference organized by his lawyer.
Mr. Murtaza said he was arrested while he was leaving his house for dinner on the evening of March 16. He was not given a reason for his detention, he said.
“They asked me if I had changed my name from Raja Ghulam Mustafa to Raja Ghulam Murtaza. I said, ‘Yes.’ But they didn’t ask me why I changed my name.”
While in detention, Mr. Murtaza said, he was the victim of repeated verbal abuse, threats and profanity.
During his first interrogation, Mr. Murtaza said, he was asked three questions.
His interrogator asked him where he was from. Pakistan, Mr. Murtaza said he responded.
“Then he asked me, ‘Are you from Pakistan?’ I said yes. ‘Then you are a terrorist,’ he told me.”
Tarek Fatah, communications director of the Canadian Muslim Congress, also spoke at the news conference.
“People should be addressed by their names, not by four letter words,” Mr. Fatah said.
“Everyone in the Pakistani community feels terrorized.”
Mr. Murtaza said his run-in with immigration officials has left him a marked man.
“They put it in the news that I am a terrorist. Now I don’t have a job because no one wants to hire me,” he said. Mr. Murtaza was employed as taxi driver in Newmarket at the time of his arrest.
Asked whether he was a terrorist, he responded, “Not at all.”
Mr. Murtaza said he is from Toba Tek Singh, a town in the Pakistani province of Punjab, which is a major recruitment centre for the Pakistani army. His four brothers are in the Pakistani army, and he served seven years, rising to the rank of captain, he said.
He said that he angered Pakistani officials by voicing his criticism of corruption and bribery within the armed forces.
Mr. Murtaza said he escaped to the United States, where his application for refugee status was rejected.
Afterward, he crossed the border into Canada and changed his name to Murtaza from Mustafa to avoid trouble.
“I do not want to go back to Pakistan,” said Mr. Murtaza, adding that he fears deportation and any subsequent repercussions for desertion.
Mr. Murtaza, along with his girlfriend, Rose, and others, have suggested that Mr. Murtaza’s ex-wife, Fatima, called immigration officials and reported that he was a terrorist.
The couple split up some time ago; Mr. Murtaza said they are divorced under Islamic law.
Their son, Bilal, 6, lives with his mother in Texas. Their daughter, Iqra, 7, lives with her paternal grandparents in Toba Tek Singh.
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