Back home after a 27-day ordeal, Mohd Haneef today said he wants Australia to apologise to India for his detention on terror charges and vowed to return there and fight to get his work visa back.The Bangalore doctor, who returned here on Sunday after the Australian police dropped the terror charges against him, told a crowded press conference about the ordeal he and his family went through and the overwhelming support he received.“I don’t expect an apology from the Australian Government or the authorities but I would appreciate if they apologise to my peace-loving country and citizens,” said the 27-year-old doctor.However, over in Melbourne, Australian Prime Minister John Howard ruled out apologising to Haneef, saying mistakes happened from time to time and when dealing with terrorism, it was better to be safe than sorry. “Australia will not be apologising to Dr Haneef,” Howard told reporters in Sydney.Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer also defended Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews, who cancelled Haneef’s work visa, and the Australian Federal Police. “What do you expect them to do, fall on the ground and grovel? Eat dirt? I mean, get real,” he said. Downer added that the case showed that Australia’s legal system worked well. “The fact that the charges against Dr Haneef were dropped by the Director of Public Prosecutions and Dr Haneef was allowed to return to India, I would have thought would be, pretty much, the beginning and the end of it,” he told reporters.Andrews said on Monday that he was seeking advice as to whether he can make public the information which led him to cancel Haneef’s visa, so “people can see the circumstances in which the decision was made”.Asked about Andrews’s remark, Haneef said he wanted the Australian Immigration Minister to come forward. “I don’t know what the reasons are.his withholding information from the press to cancel my visa,” he told reporters.However, Haneef was not forthcoming on whether he would sue the Australian Government, only asserting that he would like to return to work as a doctor there and was willing to fight to get his visa back.Asked whether he was victimised because he was an Asian Muslim, Haneef said: “There might be an element of truth in it.I suspect.”“I am not a victim of international conspiracy, but Australian conspiracy,” Haneef said, adding, he does not wish to see anybody victimised in the name of terrorism. “My family suffered a great deal as a result of what happened to me.” Haneef’s lawyer Peter Russo, who waged a successful battle to free him, said the Australian Federal Police had taken every item of the doctor’s personal belongings when they arrested him on July 2 from Brisbane airport. “If this does not make a person feel like a victim of some sort, then what would?” Russo asked.Haneef also spoke up for the parents of his cousins Sabeel and Kafeel Ahmed, linked to the Glasgow terror attack, saying they needed emotional support at this time and it was not their fault that such things happened.About accepting any job in the country, he said he has kept all his options open. “Now, I want to spend some time with my family.” Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on Monday offered a job in a government hospital to Haneef at a meeting at his official residence. Kumaraswamy said he was very happy that an “innocent and respectable person, who was harassed, has been released.”At the press conference, Russo refused to state details of the legal fee he was charging Haneef, saying it is a confidential matter between him and his client. The lawyer and Haneef's cousin Imran Siddiqui also refuted reports that they were negotiating for paid interviews of Haneef with media houses. In a philosophical mode, Haneef saw his ordeal in Australia as “part of life”. “There are ups and downs. We have to move on in life.”On how the ordeal has changed him, Haneef said: “I think it was a reminder for me of the final day.the day when we are dead..when we are in the grave.It just reminds me that when we are alone in the graveyard with.nothing.nothing from outside.except what you have done.what you have earned in our lives.”. Haneef added that he is a true Islam follower. “Islam narrates peace and love and nothing else,” he said.India surprised at Aussie minister remark on visaNEW DELHI: India on Monday expressed surprise at the Australian Immigration Minister's statement that he wants to release to the public extra information which prompted him to cancel Mohd Haneef's visa on character grounds. External Affairs Minister E Ahamed said the fact that the charges have been withdrawn against Haneef demonstrates that evidence against him is very weak and it will not be able to face the legal test in a court of law. Ahamed, in a statement, also reiterated India's commitment to stand by its citizens if they were subjected to unfair treatment.
