An engineering student at Kandahar University, Abdul Qayum was at the center of a major incident over the weekend, when he was detained by a CIA “strike force” that attacked his university and tortured in detention before President Karzai secured his release.
Qayum reported that the strike force put a black hood over his head and took him to an “undisclosed location” where he was beaten and asked if he knew any “Taliban commanders.” They also asked if he could help them capture a neighbor from his home village.
Qayum says the whole interest in capturing him seems to have been that he was from a village frequented by the Taliban. When he insisted he wasn’t working with Taliban nor did he know them, he was beaten further and whipped with cords.
President Karzai issued a statement surrounding Qayum’s capture, saying that his staff intervened after complaints from other students and secured his release. He announced a full ban of US forces from universities nationwide, saying abuse of students would not be tolerated.
