play Live Sign upShow navigation menu.css-15ru6p1{font-size:inherit;font-weight:normal;}Navigation menuNewsShow more news sectionsAfricaAsiaUS & CanadaLatin AmericaEuropeAsia PacificMiddle EastExplainedOpinionSportVideoMoreShow more sectionsFeaturesEconomyHuman RightsClimate CrisisInvestigationsInteractivesIn PicturesScience & TechnologyPodcastsTravelplay Live Click here to searchsearchSign upNavigation menucaret-leftDonald TrumpCould Trump ‘take over’ the Strait of Hormuz?Has Trump failed to sell the Iran war to the world?Are US-Israeli attacks against Iran legal?Why Washington can’t stop Trump on Irancaret-rightNews|MigrationOutrage as Afghan asylum seeker who fought alongside US dies in ICE custodyFamily, advocates call for full probe after Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal dies less than 24 hours after being detained. Listen to this article | 5 minsinfoMohommad Nazeer Paktyawal is seen with two of his children [Photo courtesy of AfghanEvac]By Joseph StepanskyPublished On 16 Mar 202616 Mar 2026Click here to share on social mediashare2Share googleAdd Al Jazeera on GoogleinfoWashington, DC – Advocacy groups are calling for answers after an Afghan asylum seeker in the United States died just hours after being taken into custody by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents. The death of 41-year-old Mohommad Nazeer Paktyawal comes at a time when the administration of US President Donald Trump has surged immigration enforcement as part of a mass deportation campaign.
That drive has often touched on the lives of the about 70,000 Afghans evacuated to the US in the wake of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, like Paktyawal, who worked alongside US forces during Washington’s two-year military deployment to the country. Thousands of other Afghans fearing Taliban reprisal have since relocated to the US. Paktyawal’s family described him as a “loving husband and father” with six children who worked at a halal market and bakery near his home in Richardson, Texas.
In a statement relayed through the AfghanEvac advocacy group, they said he was detained on March 13 as he left to drop his children off at school. “His children watched as he was surrounded and taken away,” the family said in a statement. “That moment will stay with them forever”.
Less than 24 hours later, they were notified he had been rushed to the hospital, where he died. “We cannot understand how this happened. He was only 41 years old and was a strong and healthy man,” they said.
“His children keep asking when he’ll come home”. For its part, ICE said in a statement that Paktyawal had complained of shortness of breath and chest pains while being processed. He was then rushed to nearby Parkland Hospital, where he was administered care.
The next morning, the agency said, medical staff noticed that Paktyawal’s tongue was swelling, saying: “after multiple lifesaving efforts were attempted, he was declared deceased at 9:10am”.
