Pakistan probes X-Ray inmates

More than 500 prisoners remain in Camp X-Ray

Pakistan has sent a team of officials to question up to 40 of its citizens being held at Camp X-Ray on Cuba.

The five-member delegation, which left for the US military's Guantanamo Bay base late on Saturday, includes senior foreign and interior ministry officials.

They will spend a week investigating inmates' alleged links with al-Qaeda and other militant groups.

They will look into their history and background

Pakistan Interior Ministry

Islamabad is a key ally of the US, which accuses Osama Bin Laden's al-Qaeda network of carrying out the 11 September attacks on New York and Washington.

Pakistani sources say the team has been sent at the request of United States officials who want help interrogating suspects.

It is believed Pakistani officials' detailed knowledge of Afghanistan and its former Taleban rulers, who were backed by Pakistan, may prove useful in extracting information from suspects.

The team is also expected to look into the cases of 72 Pakistanis being held in US jails, six of whom are accused of al-Qaeda links.

Profiling

An interior ministry spokesman told Reuters news agency that the officials would carry out background checks on the Pakistani inmates at Camp X-Ray.

Inmates are kept in wire cages

"They will collect the profiles of the 40 Pakistanis who are detained," he said.

Most prisoners at Camp X-Ray were captured in Afghanistan during the US-led war against al-Qaeda and the Taleban, which sheltered the group.

Thousands of Pakistanis who fought for the Taleban before it fell were also caught.

Most have been held in Afghan prisons, but some were considered important enough to be shipped to Camp X-Ray.

Legal limbo

They are among more than 500 prisoners being detained there.

The inmates, who come from 39 countries, are being held in a state of legal limbo, with no charges filed against them.

Washington says it will hold the "illegal combatants" indefinitely, refusing to define them as prisoners of war.

Lawyers accuse the US Government of trampling on inmates' rights.

The detainees have no access to legal representation and are kept shackled inside open-air wire cages.