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SARNIA — A Sarnia family doctor who left his war-torn country says he saw the end of a hard-earned medical career flash before his eyes when he was detained by U.S. border agents and quizzed about his “tribe.”

Dr. Sardar Ahmad, who left Afghanistan on a prestigious Fulbright scholarship, said he was detained for more than five hours at the Blue Water Bridge, Canada’s second-busiest U.S. border crossing, for reasons the Canadian citizen still isn’t clear about three days later.

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During his detainment Friday, Ahmad said U.S. border agents asked him what “tribe” he belonged to and the name of his “tribe chief,” whether he had seen “a lot of gunmen” growing up in Afghanistan and specific questions about the family he left behind there.

“It was frustrating for me because I was worried, I was scared, I didn’t know what was going to happen next,” the 43-year-old doctor said Monday.

“You never know. They could put you in jail. You could lose your career – everything – all, overnight.”