ISLAMABAD, December 28 (IslamOnline) - The only Pakistani prisoner to return home from U.S. detention center at Guantanamo Bay Cuba is seeking legal advice to sue the U.S. government for compensation against his “illegal and unlawful” detention at the U.S. facility for almost one year.

Ansar Burney Welfare Trust has approached the Camp X-Ray returnee in his hometown in Pattan, in the tribal areas bordering Afghanistan, to offer him free legal aid in case he decides to sue the U.S. government for compensation.

“I am innocent. This is what I was told by the U.S. authorities upon my release,” 51 year old Muhammad Sagheer said in an interview. “But they never said sorry neither they offered anything to compensate me for they trouble caused to me during the interrogation at Camp X-Ray”.

Sagheer said he was given a hundred dollar bill at the time of his release on 27^th October and was told that another hundred dollars will be received in Pakistan. “This is not enough” he says with a grim face. “The pain and miseries I went through during the year-long interrogation should be compensated in a proper way as they do in American legal system” Sagheer said with a deep look of determination in his eyes.

Sagheer has a number of terror tales to tell about his captivity in Cuba and in Kandhar and Shibarghan, Afghanistan. But he says the problem before him now is how to fix his Saw unit which has been serving as the sole bread-earner for his 20-member family. The Saw went out of order during his absence. None of his 18 children were able to get it fixed. They simply did not have enough money.

It was a routine preaching trip for the veteran preacher Sagheer except that it was this time in a foreign country, Afghanistan. Sagheer has been preaching the basic teachings of Islam mostly to his Muslim countrymen for years. This time, he was asked to go to Afghanistan for the same purpose and was arrested by the forces of Uzbek Warlord Dostam in Kunduz when it fell to the Northern Alliance in October.

Giving his account of the treatment given to the inmates at Guantanamo Bay, prison Sagheer said the only luxury available to the prisoners is a brief walk in the open twice a week. The prisoners were supposed to be allowed this “recreational” activity for up to 15 minutes two times a week. “But this seldom happened. The prisoners were never allowed to remain for full 15 minutes in the ground. We were forced back to our cells after 10 minutes or even less time in the ground,” Sagheer said.

Initially, the treatment meted out to the prisoner was cruel. All of the prisoners were forcefully shaven their heads and beards and were not allowed to say prayers, recite Quran or indulge in any other kind of religious activity or duty. But when most of the prisoners went on hunger strike which continued for over a month, some of these “facilities” were allowed to the inmates.