(AP) - About 50 protesters rallied outside a
federal detention center to support Ansar Mahmood, a 26-year-old
Pakistani detainee arrested for taking a picture outside the gate
of a water treatment plant.
Mahmood spoke softly into a telephone across a glass barrier
about the support he has received during more than two years of
incarceration.
"It is a wonderful feeling now," Mahmood said
Saturday.
The pizza deliveryman was arrested a month after the Sept.
11,
2001 attacks after raising the suspicion of a guard at a water
treatment plant he photographed.
Although no terrorism charges were filed, Mahmood was
convicted
in January 2002 of illegally harboring aliens and ordered deported.
He is awaiting a decision from the Bureau of Immigration and
Customs Enforcement on his request for supervised release in the
United States instead.
About 17 months before he was detained, Mahmood legally came
to
the United States to help provide financial support to his family
in Pakistan. Five brothers, three sisters and his parents remain
there and do not fully understand the circumstances of his
detainment, he said.
"It's hard to explain. They know I'm all right and I
know
they're all right," he said.
The cost of international calls allows him to contact his
family
for only five minutes every few weeks, he said.
Outside the Batavia detention facility, members of the Ansar
Mahmood Defense Committee and demonstrators marched and waved signs
to show their support for a man they say is being held for no good
reason.
"Everything happens for a reason," Mahmood said.
"I say I'm
going to be released, but I don't know when or how. If God wants
it, it will happen."
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(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press.
All Rights Reserved.)