2 Pakistanis freed from Guantanamo

Two Pakistanis were freed on Monday from the U.S. custody at the maximum security prison at Guantanamo Bay, a Pakistani official said.

A group of other six Pakistanis were also released from the U.S. -controlled Bagram base in Afghanistan, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told local private Geo TV.

"All the freed men are being debriefed in an undisclosed location," Sherpao said. And "They will be allowed to go home after debriefing is completed."

Hundreds of Pakistanis crossed into Afghanistan in 2001 to help the former Taliban regime to fight the U.S. troops, according to the report.

When the Taliban regime collapsed, hundreds of such Pakistanis were taken prisoner by different Afghan warlords.

The U.S. authorities later took away more than 50 Pakistani prisoners, along with hundreds of others, to the detention camp.

A Pakistani official said all the prisoners brought back from Guantanamo Bay and Bagram were formally handed over to the local authorities after they came back to Pakistan.

Some delegations of senior security officials have been to Guantanamo Bay to collect details of the Pakistani nationals being held there.

The delegations have declared that none of the Pakistani prisoners were actively involved in al-Qaida and requested the American authorities to set them free.

Source: Xinhua