“The Road to Guantanamo” is a film produced by Andrew Eaton and directed by Michael Winterbottom claiming that it is a true story. The story is about four, twenty year old Muslim boys residing in England planned to travel to Pakistan to attend the wedding of one of them. But unfortunately they were deviated and were taken to Guantanamo Bay as captives. Later after series of questioning and torturing they were found innocent and got released after two years.
Ruhel Ahmed, Asif Iqbal, Shafiq Rasul and Monir are four friends who decided to attend the wedding of Asif which is proposed to take place in a village in Pakistan. The boys’ native place is England. In the month of September 2001, they started their journey from Karachi to the village to attend the wedding ceremony.
They were traveling close to the border of Afghanistan. The boys were tempted to go into Afghanistan as they understood that there are no restrictions to cross the border. There was no second thought, and the boys got into a vehicle that was heading to Kandahar in Afghanistan. The boys were terribly afraid to see that the city is bombed heavily by US Army. They totally lost their way and landed in Kabul. The four were very religious; they found a Mosque, went in and prayed for their safe journey to attend the wedding in Pakistan.
When they came out they were given to understand by some Muslim friends that a van is ready to go to Pakistan. With the hope that they will attend the wedding in Pakistan they got into the van. To their surprise they were only taken up to a place called Kunduz which is inside Afghanistan. Kunduz is surrounded by mountains, and the place is shelter of Talibans. Before they decide their next move they realized that the Northern Alliance Troops were charging on the Taliban fighters. Taliban fighters were running for their life, and the four Muslim boys got mixed with them. Later Monir one of the four missing and could never be traced.
The other three escaped boys got into one of the Taliban vehicles going in a fleet. The fleet was bombed heavily. Some of the Taliban fighters and the three boys who escaped surrendered to the army. All the surrendered were then taken to Kandahar Air base. After questioning and beating them to find out if they have any connection with Alquida or Osama Bin Laden they were air lifted to Guantanamo Bay in January 2002 as captives. The boys had to undergo torture all the twenty four hours. They were exposed to sun, locked in open air cells and forbidden to talk to each other. CIA and FBI military officers tried them to find out if they are Alquida supporters. The boys might have been wondering whether they will be able to attend the wedding in Pakistan.
At last in 2004 the boys were released after they found that they are innocent and they are from England. Finally, they were very happy that their dream of attending the wedding in Pakistan will come true.
In the film the role of the four boys were enacted by Rizwan Ahmed, Farhad Harun, Waqar Siddiqui and Afran Usman; the four that were going to attend a wedding in Pakistan.