Jan Baz

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Jan Baz (also known as Jan Baz Khan) is a citizen of Afghanistan who was held in extrajudicial detemtion in the United States Bargram Airfield detention facility.^[1]

1 Nephew of Pacha Khan
2 Attack on Firebase Salerno
- 2.1 Connection with Dilawar
3 References

[edit] Nephew of Pacha Khan

Baz is a nephew and lieutenant of Pacha Khan, an independent Afghan militia leader.^[1] Pacha Khan had been a militia leader during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan; had resisted the Taliban; had raised a force to help overthrow the Taliban when the USA invaded; had been rewarded with the administration of a region of Afghanistan by the Afghan Transitional Administration; had strained relations with other administrators, causing him to lose his position within the ATA; had strained relations with US forces, causing him to be considered, for a time, to be a renegade and an enemy; was elected to the Wolesa Jirga in 2005.

Kadir's detention was justified because he had been captured with Jan Baz, the protege of renegade Pacha Khan.^[1] However Kadir said that rather than being captured with Jan Baz, he was captured due to a false denunciation from Baz's uncle Pacha Khan, and that Jan Baz had lead the unit of his uncle's soldiers that accompanied the American soldiers who captured him.

Khandan Kadir said he saw Baz arrive at the Bagram detention facility in early 2005, four months after his own capture.^[1]

Main article: Bagram torture and prisoner abuse

[edit] Attack on Firebase Salerno

Several Guantanamo captives were held in Guantanamo because they were suspected of involvement in an attack on Firebase Salerno, the third most important American base in Afghanistan.

[edit] Connection with Dilawar

One of the captives who were beaten to death at Bagram was a jitney taxi driver named Dilawar.^[2] A May 20, 2005 article in the New York Times reports that Dilawar was captured by troops loyal to Jan Baz Khan the "guerrilla commander" guarded Firebase Salerno, shortly after three rockets were fired at the base. American troops beat Dilawar to death on December 10, 2002, five days after he arrived at Bagram. According to the article, by February 2002, Bagram intelligence analysts concluded that Jan Baz was handing over innocent men to garner American approval, and that he was behind the rocket attack himself.