After a while I never believed I would leave. I decided I would never leave. Sometimes the soldiers would tell me I would be released; but I never believed them. 65 After five years in detention, Jibran was finally released in 2009, at the age of 21. According to Jibran, upon his release, a U.S. military officer apologized for capturing and detaining him. I asked the officer with me why they were freeing me and where they were sending me. His name was Lt Col Hendricks I think. He said the U.S. wanted to free me in 2007 because of a lack of evidence but Pakistan did not want me back. He apologized for capturing me. I replied that this detention has stolen five years of my life; your apology is not very helpful. How do I get those five years back? 66 b) Indefinite detention and repercussions for families With detainees absent for years, parents have been left without their sons, and wives without their husbands. For all the families interviewed, their relative’s detention meant they are robbed of someone who provided substantial financial support, and was often the family’s primary breadwinner. Many are large, traditional families with relatives living together in the same house, often in Pakistan’s urban slums or poor rural areas where families must pool their incomes to make ends meet. The loss of a major income earner has forced young children to give up their education and elderly family members to return to the workforce. Torn from their relatives, struggling to earn a living, and sometimes ostracized by their own communities, families bear a heavy burden, and do not know when or if their lives will ever return to normal. Maqsood, from Punjab, Pakistan, married his wife, Nargis in 2008, just two years before he was detained by U.S. forces. Because of his long history of mental illness, Maqsood had to look for work far from his native village in Punjab. Prior to his capture, he was employed on a water-boring project in Chamman near the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, returning to his home in Punjab every three weeks. However, due to his psychiatric condition, Maqsood would occasionally wander off, leaving his family for weeks at a time. His family believes that he unwittingly crossed the PakistanAfghanistan border and was captured by U.S. forces. 67 Maqsood told his family that U.S. guards said he was captured and detained for crossing the border without documentation. 68 In a society where women living alone are frowned upon, without her husband Nargis was forced to move in with her brother, Mukhtar. Already struggling to make ends meet, Mukhtar says that he has taken on a significant financial load to provide for his sister: I now have to take care of my sister as well as myself. It is very burdensome. It is not acceptable that a married woman still lives with her brother. People shun us because our relative is in prison. 69 65 Ibid. Justice Project Pakistan interview with Jibran, November 2012 (real name, location withheld); ‘Lt Col Hendricks’ is a pseudonym. 67 Justice Project Pakistan interview with Nargis and Mukhtar, November 2012 (names, location withheld). 68 Ibid. 69 Justice Project Pakistan interview with Mukhtar, November 2012 (real name, location withheld). 66 21