Sha Mohammed Alikhel

{{Short description|Pakistani detainee}}

{{other uses|Mohammed Shah (disambiguation)}}

{{Use dmy dates|date=February 2023}}

{{Infobox War on Terror detainee

| name = Sha Mohammed Alikhel

| image =

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| birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1981}}

| birth_place = Swaat, Pakistan

| date_of_arrest =

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| citizenship =

| detained_at = Guantanamo

| id_number = 19

| group =

| alias = Shah Muhammad

| charge = No charge (extrajudicial detention)

| penalty =

| status = Repatriated 8 May 2003

| csrt_summary =

| csrt_transcript=

| occupation =

| spouse =

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}}

Sha Mohammed Alikhel (born 1981) is a Pakistani who was held in extrajudicial detention in the United States Guantanamo Bay detention camps, in Cuba.[http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-5-2003_pg7_8 US releases three Pakistanis jailed in Guantanamo], Daily Times, 14 May 2003

On 8 May 2003, Muhammad was released at the same time as two other Pakistanis,

Jehan Wali and Sahibzada Usman Ali. He was 20 years old.

{{cite news

| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/3051501.stm

| title=Pakistani relives Guantanamo ordeal

| publisher=BBC News

| author=Haroon Rashid

| date=2003-05-23

| accessdate=2009-01-09

| quote=

}}

{{cite news

|url = http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/09-F-0031_doc1.pdf

|title = Consolidated chronological listing of GTMO detainees released, transferred or deceased

|publisher = Department of Defense

|author = OARDEC

|author-link = OARDEC

|date = 2008-10-09

|accessdate = 2008-12-28

|url-status = dead

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20081220004442/http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/detainees/09-F-0031_doc1.pdf

|archivedate = 2008-12-20

}}

Muhammad is a baker from Dir, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan.

{{cite news

| url=http://www.thenews.com.pk/print1.asp?id=92154

| title=The road to Guantanamo

| publisher=The International News

| author=Fatima Bhutto

| author-link=Fatima Bhutto

| date=2008-01-20

| accessdate=2008-01-22

}}

Only one other Pakistani detainee, elderly Mohammed Saghir, had been released prior to his release.[https://www.cbsnews.com/news/afghans-describe-life-inside-gitmo/ Afghans Describe Life Inside Gitmo] CBS News, 29 October 2002 {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080516070503/http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/02/attack/main531326.shtml |date=May 16, 2008 }}[https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12322925&method=full&siteid=50143 The oldest of the old: First 'hardcore' suspects freed from Camp Delta.. three Afghans, combined age 196] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20040310171903/http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/allnews/page.cfm?objectid=12322925&method=full&siteid=50143 |date=10 March 2004 }}, The Mirror, 30 October 2002

Shah reported that he felt despair, and made four suicide attempts during his time in Guantanamo, even though suicide was against the tenets of Islam.[http://www.refuseandresist.org/detentions/art.php?aid=1001 Inmates Released from Guantanamo Tell Tales of Despair] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060914222457/http://www.refuseandresist.org/detentions/art.php?aid=1001 |date=2006-09-14 }}, The New York Times, 17 June 2003

When The Guardian interviewed Muhammad, a year after his release, Muhammad reported ongoing after-effects from his incarceration:

{{cite news

|url = https://www.theguardian.com/guantanamo/story/0,13743,1098604,00.html

|title = People the law forgot

|work = The Guardian

|date = 2003-12-03

|accessdate = 2012-07-14

|archivedate = 2012-07-16

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20120716125146/http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/03/guantanamo.usa1

|url-status = live

}}

"The biggest damage is to my brain. My physical and mental state isn't right. I'm a changed person. I don't laugh or enjoy myself much."

The Guardian reports that Muhammad's first suicide attempt followed a month of solitary confinement in a punishment cell.

Muhammad was not confined there because he had broken any of the camp rules — rather the camp's expansion meant they had run short of ordinary cells.

Muhammad reported having his suicidal impulses treated by involuntary injections with extremely powerful, long-lasting, psychoactive drugs.

The Department of Defense released a list of all the captives who had been detained in Guantanamo, in military custody on 15 May 2006.[http://www.dod.mil/news/May2006/d20060515%20List.pdf List of prisoners (.pdf)], US Department of Defense, 15 May 2006

Muhammad Shah's name is missing from that list.

Mark Bowden, writing in The Philadelphia Inquirer, described traveling to Pakistan to interview Shah Muhammad and Shabidzada Usman, another young Pakistani who was among the first captives to be released.

{{cite news

|url = http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080921_The_Point__Disturbing_line_Palin_tossed_off_in_address.html

|title = The Point: Disturbing line Palin tossed off in address

|publisher = The Philadelphia Inquirer

|author = Mark Bowden

|author-link = Mark Bowden

|date = 2008-09-21

|accessdate = 2009-01-05

|url-status = live

|archiveurl = https://web.archive.org/web/20081025021335/http://www.philly.com/philly/hp/news_update/20080921_The_Point__Disturbing_line_Palin_tossed_off_in_address.html

|archivedate = 2008-10-25

}}

Bowden described being met by "warmth and elaborate courtesy" by the two released men, who he described as "uneducated, unworldly, and dirt poor". Bowden believed their accounts that they were rounded up and sold to the Americans by undiscriminating warlords, for a bounty, who didn't care if they were innocent.{{fact|date=February 2023}}

On an official list of the captives' departure dates from Guantanamo published in November 2008, his name was published as "Sha Mohammed Alikhel".