The Clipboard: Shopkeeper deported from Rock Hill under Patriot Act killed in Pakistan

From an article¹:

All Ahfaz Khan wanted was a life in America.
After marrying a naturalized U.S. citizen, having two U.S.-born children and running a Rock Hill convenience store for years, Khan was rounded up in post-Sept. 11, 2001, sweeps that targeted Muslim immigrants.

The government's stated goal was to crack down on terrorism, but Patriot Act critics say the result was punishing thousands of people, including Khan, for immigration violations that had largely been ignored before.

In February 2002, Khan was deported to his native Pakistan. It was a move he feared could cost him his life, he told his attorney, Hina Askari.

In March, Khan's fear came true. He was assassinated by two armed men on a motorcycle in Karachi, Pakistan, while having coffee in a public place, said Robert DePathy, director of client relations with Askari's Orlando firm. (link)

<sarcasm>Another great victory in the war on terrorism</sarcasm>

My condolences go out to his family. Inna lillahi wa inna ilayhi raji'un.

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Complete text of the article, Shopkeeper deported from Rock Hill under Patriot Act killed in Pakistan, by Jason Cato

All Ahfaz Khan wanted was a life in America.
After marrying a naturalized U.S. citizen, having two U.S.-born children and running a Rock Hill convenience store for years, Khan was rounded up in post-Sept. 11, 2001, sweeps that targeted Muslim immigrants.

The government's stated goal was to crack down on terrorism, but Patriot Act critics say the result was punishing thousands of people, including Khan, for immigration violations that had largely been ignored before.

In February 2002, Khan was deported to his native Pakistan. It was a move he feared could cost him his life, he told his attorney, Hina Askari.

In March, Khan's fear came true. He was assassinated by two armed men on a motorcycle in Karachi, Pakistan, while having coffee in a public place, said Robert DePathy, director of client relations with Askari's Orlando firm.

"This shouldn't have happened to begin with," DePathy said. "This is the thing he feared in being sent back."

The husband of an American citizen for five years and the father of two U.S.-born daughters, ages 2 and 5, Khan, a Pakistan native, applied for legal residency in 2001 under the federal government's immigration amnesty program.

Unfortunately, that application is what eventually led Immigration and Naturalization Service officials to him for an immigration violation for overstaying his original visa seven years earlier, Askari said last year.

Without knowledge of his status, Khan continued living in the United States, marrying Fatima Siddiqui, an American of Iranian descent, and purchasing the convenience store at 725 Saluda St.

On Jan. 8, 2002, Khan was arrested by INS officials and jailed in the Mecklenburg County Detention Center. On Feb. 1, 2002, he was handcuffed and put on an airplane headed for Pakistan -- against his will, Askari said.

Five months after his re-moval, in July 2002, INS officials in Orlando approved Khan's pending residency paperwork. But it legally didn't matter since he'd already been deported.

"It's just a whole fiasco," DePathy said. "Mr. (U.S. Attorney General John) Ashcroft has definitely put across an anti-immigrant policy to punish everyone for the acts of 19 people."

And in this case, that punishment not only affected a Pakistani immigrant but cost him his life, DePathy said.

"I hope it doesn't happen again before we get some real due process," DePathy said.

reference=http://www.heraldonline.com/local/story/2900488p-2670337c.html