Hundreds Abducted as Suspects, Group Says

Pakistan has abducted hundreds of people as part of the U.S.-declared war on terrorism, often secretly holding them for months while they were interrogated, human rights group Amnesty International said today.

The group said that some suspects were held in Pakistan but that many were handed over to U.S. custody and held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Bagram, Afghanistan; or at secret prisons.

In many cases, U.S. agents paid a bounty of $5,000 to people, usually intelligence agents, who simply declared other people terrorists, seized them and handed them over for interrogation with no legal process, the rights group said.