For Wakeel Khan, the worst aspect of the disappearance of his son Hameedullah was initially not knowing his fate. Hameedullah disappeared from the tribal region of Waziristan bordering Afghanistan in a 2008 military operation. For a while, it seemed that he had fallen off the face of the earth.
"It was five, six months after my son went missing that I found out he was at Bagram [the main US base in Afghanistan]," a visibly upset Mr Khan - who served in the Pakistan Army for 15 years - told the BBC. "The Red Cross helped us get in touch with him in jail, but for two years, he couldn't even tell us why he'd been arrested.
"Even now, whenever I ask him about his living conditions, the line just gets disconnected."
All this is a far cry from Mr Khan's earlier wish for his son to become a doctor. But Mr Khan is not the only one whose dreams have been shattered. Haroon Khan's nephew has also ended up in Bagram prison.
"My nephew took his father to the doctor in Karachi and stepped out for a moment. A year later, the Red Cross told us he was in Bagram. We've never gone to see my nephew. He's specifically asked us not to risk getting into trouble ourselves. My crime has not been proven and they have no evidence against me”
Wakeel's son and Haroon's nephew are among hundreds of people allegedly arrested from all over Pakistan and Afghanistan after the US launched its invasion of Afghanistan in 2001. Some were subsequently found not guilty and set free - but only after they had spent years in jail.
Pakistan prisoners in Afghan jails despair
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