The United States authorities have confirmed that there are 16 Pakistanis being held in the Guantanamo Bay detention center, including Karachi-based businessman Saifullah Paracha who allegedly provided financial support to al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, local newspaper reported on Monday.

Dawn quoted a source from Pakistani interior ministry as saying that Paracha was picked up from an area bordering Afghanistan.

According to an official, a delegation to be headed by National Crisis Management Cell (NCMC) director Colonel Imran will visit the Cuba-based Guantanamo Bay prison on July 20 to ascertain the exact number of Pakistani inmates and initiate the process for their repatriation.

He said that Islamabad had not been provided an exact number of Pakistanis detained in Guantanamo but it was expected that the figure must be over 50.

Most of them were arrested in Afghanistan, he said.

The official said that 67 Pakistanis had already returned from the detention center and said the U.S. authorities had reportedly asked Islamabad to keep vigilant eye on those people.

Some of them are said to have been put in jails to keep them from re-indulging in terrorist activities, he added.

Source: Xinhua