Pakistanis freed from Guantanamo

By Zaffar Abbas BBC correspondent in Islamabad

An American military aircraft has brought back 11 Pakistani nationals after they were released from US custody at the maximum security prison at Guantanamo Bay.

This is the biggest group to be set free from among the 54 Pakistanis taken to the Camp Delta detention centre, most of whom were arrested by the US authorities in Afghanistan - suspected of links to al-Qaeda.

More than 50 Pakistani prisoners were taken to Guantanamo Bay

A Pakistani official said all the prisoners brought back from Guantanamo Bay were formally handed over to the local authorities after being flown back to Pakistan.

The official did not disclose their identities but said the move was part of the efforts to secure the release of all the Pakistani nationals being kept at Camp Delta.

Most of the detained Pakistani nationals were members of the country's hardline Islamic groups that were sympathetic to Afghanistan's former Taleban regime.

In those days, many of them considered Afghanistan as their second home.

Pleas for release

When the Taleban regime fell, several hundred such Pakistanis were taken prisoner by different Afghan warlords.

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

Late last year, Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf sent a delegation of senior security officials to Guantanamo Bay to collect details of the Pakistani nationals being held there.

The delegation declared that none of the Pakistani prisoners were actively involved with al-Qaeda and requested the American authorities to set them free.

It is widely believed that President Musharraf also took up the issue of the release during his recent visit to the United States.