Former Jamaat-i-Islami senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, who was aboard the Gaza-bound Global Sumud Flotilla (GSF) and imprisoned by Israel, criticised Muslim governments across the globe for not putting enough pressure on Israel or taking any action to prevent the ongoing genocide.

Khan led the Pakistani delegation on the 45-vessel GSF, which left Spain last month to break Israel’s blockade of aid to Gaza with activists and politicians, including Greta Thunberg, on board. However, as it approached Gaza, Israeli forces intercepted it, detaining the activists on board before deporting them. Khan was detained in Israel for five days before being deported to Jordan.

Appearing on Geo News programme ‘Capital Talk’, the ex-senator slammed the federal government, as well as other Muslim governments, for failing to put pressure on Israel to stop its onslaught in the Gaza Strip. Khan also outlined his experience in Israeli captivity during the interview.

“What I want to ask is that if Sweden’s Greta [Thunberg] can lead the flotilla, then where are the Muslim countries?” he asked. “Why didn’t the people stand up? I am ashamed that 2 billion Muslims could not do anything.

“There were parliamentarians in jail with me. Where were Pakistan’s parliamentarians?”

Speaking about Pakistan’s role in the peace plan, specifically the meeting on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, Khan highlighted that the 20-point plan unveiled by United States President Donald Trump was a “project of slavery”.

“Since they (Israel) could not capture Gaza by force, they tried to capture it through negotiations. That 20-point plan was a slap in Hamas’ face,” he emphasised.

He highlighted that the Palestinian Authority’s involvement was also questionable, as they talked about Gaza “minus Hamas” at the UN General Assembly.

“The world order had failed; thus, civilians undertook the mission,” Khan said.
When asked about whether the Gaza peace plan would be successful, the ex-senator replied in the affirmative, adding that the people of Europe and their pressure on Israel would be a contributing factor and that they would be able to bring about a ceasefire.

“Most of the people in this flotilla, 80 per cent, were Europeans and non-Muslims,” Khan explained. When asked about why Europeans were so fervently campaigning for Palestine, the ex-senator explained that they are complicit in decades of oppression by a colonising force.

“On this flotilla, the Westerners decided that they would bring as many Jews on board as possible,” Khan said. “The goal was to show that Zionism is an enemy of humanity and exploits Judaism. The vast majority of Jews do not support Zionists.
“They would use the f-word when talking about Israel,” he added.

The ex-senator also hailed Swedish activist Greta Thunberg as a “hero of humanity” for standing up for the Palestinians.

“Greta … a young girl left the world shaken,” he added. “I will invite her to Pakistan.”

The senator also floated the idea of a new flotilla mission with participants from across the world, but under the leadership of international Islamic civil society members.

“We will make sure that we fly Pakistani flags from the boats,” he vowed. “If the peace plan fails, if a humanitarian corridor is not opened, if the genocide is not stopped and if the culprits of this genocide are not brought to justice, then we will launch our own flotilla ourselves.

Behind bars at Ktzi’ot Prison

Programme host Hamid Mir pointed out the ex-senator’s loss of weight, to which he replied that it was due to a mix of the journey through the Mediterranean and a three-day hunger strike in jail.

“It was a 20-day journey through the Mediterranean to Ashdod Port. We would eat once every 24 hours during the trip, and only ate salan (curry) twice,” Khan said. “There was bread and dates, that was all the food we ate.

“In the Israeli jail, we staged a three-day hunger strike. That contributed to my weight loss,” he added, calling the jail a “concentration camp” with a “torture cell”.

When asked about his faith in accomplishing the mission, Khan said he did not believe it, but was hopeful that “God would provide a path”. The ex-senator added that he had “exposed Israel’s genocidal face to the world” during the mission.

“Malaysia sent the biggest delegation on the flotilla,” the ex-senator said, extending gratitude to Kuala Lumpur for its support. “I went straight to Tunis from Kuala Lumpur; I could not come back to Pakistan because I had several cases against me. I was afraid I’d be stopped at the airport (in Pakistan).”

Khan said that he was part of the Palestine Action Coalition and was representing the Pak-Palestine Forum.

When asked about the raid, Khan said that the participants had been given standard operating procedures in case of boarding or an Israeli attack.

“When we left Crete, we knew that we were in danger of a drone attack,” he explained. He added that there were 50 boats in the flotilla when they left Crete.

“This was a journey of four days and nights, so we expected interception and drone attacks. We were instructed to throw our phones and belongings into the sea so that the Israelis couldn’t get them,” the ex-senator said.

“When I saw the Israeli navy ships up close, they were paper tigers,” he said. “Their entire navy responded and it took them 12 hours to intercept us all.

“My boat, the ‘Allakatalla’ … was the second-last to be intercepted. The last boat was 28 kilometres [from Gaza] when it was intercepted,” he said. “One of the [Israeli] ships was bigger than this building and sailing behind a 12-metre boat; the wake it was creating nearly caused up to capsize.”

He added that when the boat was boarded by Israeli commandos, the participants had been ordered to remain nonviolent and not resist at all. Khan said the Israelis shone bright lights at the flotilla and a team of 12 S-13 commandos boarded the vessel.

“When they were jumping onto our boat, two of them fell over so badly that we were afraid that they would shoot us because they were scared,” Khan remarked. “Their training was awful, no professionalism. If we had 100 boats and we were not exhausted by the trip, they could not have intercepted us.

“The only thing they (the Israeli military) can do is kill babies; they are unable to deal with any resistance.”

Recalling his time in Israeli jail, the ex-senator said that Israeli officials expressed disdain for Palestine and ripped the Palestinian flag hoisted on the boat. He added that they forcefully removed the Pakistani flag.

“We were ordered not to make eye contact with them (the Israelis). I quietly lifted the flag and put it inside the boat,” he recalled. “We were given instructions like ’hands up, lie face down on the ground. They would kick anyone for the smallest thing.

“They assigned two army personnel to each of us. When they asked me where I’m from, I replied that I’m from Pakistan, to which they hurled abuse at me. They were provoking me so that I’d hit them and give them an excuse,” Khan added.

“They kept probing us throughout and went through our documents before putting us in a bus to Ktzi’ot Prison in the Negev Desert, which is infamous for its brutality. We could not see anything from inside the van; there were walls all around.”

When asked about what happened in the prison, Khan said that they were forced to remove their clothes and wear “jail clothes”. He added that they were led to their cells “like detainees at Guantanamo Bay”.

“There were two big cell blocks; 10 rooms on either side in one of the blocks, with a 30-foot walkway in between,” the ex-senator described. “We were locked in cell number 911. We were called ‘troublemakers’; suddenly, people with guns and dogs entered our cells and forced us into a corner.

“They then bound our hands and feet and blindfolded us, before taking us to isolation and then putting us in an open cage outdoors. Our hands were so tightly bound that we could not feel them after two hours. We were not allowed to offer our Maghrib prayers by the guards. We prayed anyway without wudu or prostration.”

When asked about his cellmates, he replied that one was an American policeman, a Swiss senator and people from Europe. There were also two Tunisians and two Egyptians.

The former senator arrived in Islamabad from Jordan earlier today wearing a keffiyeh and was accorded a hero’s welcome, with people showering him with petals and adorning garlands on the former lawmaker.

@dawn.today

Former senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan landed in Islamabad to cheers and applause on Thursday. Khan was part of the Global Sumud Flotilla’s mission to Gaza to distribute humanitarian aid. His vessel was intercepted in the late hours of October 1 and he was taken in captivity along with other participants of the GSF. After a week of Israeli captivity, former senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan was released and transported to Amman, Jordan, on the second anniversary of Israel’s genocide in Gaza. #DawnToday

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The Pakistan embassy in Jordan, where he was deported to earlier, said late on Wednesday that Khan, who was detained by Israel last week after it intercepted a flotilla of boats carrying aid for Gaza, had safely departed for Pakistan.

In a post on social media platform X, the embassy said the former senator had safely departed for Pakistan.

“In accordance with the instructions of the honourable deputy prime minister of Pakistan, the embassy of Pakistan in Amman ensured all necessary arrangements were made for his safe and smooth departure,” it said.

The X account for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also reposted the embassy’s post.

Earlier on Wednesday, Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar spoke with Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister of Jordan Ayman Safadi.

According to the foreign ministry, Dar appreciated Jordan’s role in receiving the flotilla’s released detainees and facilitating their return home.

“He also thanked Jordan for its assistance in enabling the return of former senator Mushtaq Ahmad Khan to Amman,” it said, adding that Khan was scheduled to reach Pakistan today.

On Tuesday, Dar had stated that Khan had been released and was safely with the embassy in Amman. He also said that he had spoken to the ex-senator on arrival in Islamabad from Malaysia.

“Senator Mushtaq is fine and in high spirits. I lauded the courage and steadfastness of senator Mushtaq for being part of the Sumud Flotilla in support of the Palestinian cause, to break the siege to deliver humanitarian aid to the people of Gaza,“ he said.

“Senator Mushtaq thanked for the efforts made by the Pakistan Foreign Office in reaching out to him in Tel Aviv, Israel through a friendly European country’s mission there and for the full support and facilitation for his stay and safety in Amman by Pakistan embassy,” he said.

Meanwhile, the former senator had also posted a video on his X account on Tuesday in which he stated that the fight against the Israeli blockade was not over.

“I have reached Jordan along with 150 of my companions,” he said, adding that he had finally been released from Israeli detention.

“During this time, our hands were cuffed behind our backs, our feet were shackled and chained, we were blindfolded, dogs were set upon us, guns were pointed at us, and we were tortured in the worst way,” he said.

He said that the activists went on a hunger strike for three days, adding that they were denied access to air, drinking water, medication, and were not allowed to lie down.

“We have been freed,” he said. “And the fight for Palestinian freedom will continue. We will break this blockade. We will go again and again. We will make efforts to save Gaza, and those who are complicit in this genocide — those criminals will be punished,” he asserted.

He emphasised that the fight would continue “from Adiala jail to Israeli jails”, promising that he would return to Pakistan soon and provide a detailed account of his time on the flotilla as well as in Israeli detention.