A list of 370 Guantanamo prisoners, out of the total of
600 kept there, published Sunday, contains the names of
57 Pakistanis, 17 of whom have already been released.
The Pentagon refuses to
identify the prisoners by nationality and even declines
to give their exact number. The list released by Washington
Post, the newspaper says, has been put together from a
host of sources, including media reports, the Red Cross
and prisoners’ families.
A three-member delegation
from Pakistan led by Brigadier Cheema (first name not
available) concluded a number of meetings here last week
with Pentagon officials. It is expected that 20 or more
prisoners will be released as a result of that. There
are unconfirmed reports that in August 2003, the United
States offered to repatriate all or most Pakistani prisoners
to Pakistan, but was told by Islamabad that it would prefer
that the interrogations be completed at Guantanamo and
only those found “clean” be sent to Pakistan.
The vast majority of Pakistanis or alleged Pakistanis
at Guantanamo, one Pakistani official told this correspondent,
was innocent of any involvement in terrorism or al Qaeda.
The Pakistan embassy has
failed to provide any information.
According to the Washington
Post list, the following 40 Pakistanis are detained at
Guantanamo: Muhammad Abbas, Ejaz Ahmed, Sarfraz Ahmed,
Sarfraz Ali, Syed Salim Ali, Aminullah Amin, Muhammad
Anwar, Muhammad Ashraf, Haseeb Ayub, Fazal Dad, Muhammad
Hanif, Muhammad Ilyas, Zafar Iqbal, Mohammad Irfan, Azizullah
Jan, Aziz Khan, Badshah Khan, Hamoodullah Khan, Issa Khan,
Muhammed Ejaz Khan, Kifayatullah, Muhammad Ali, Munir
bin Naseer, Muhammad Nauman, Muhammad Omar, Muhammad Rafiq,
Abdul Rahim, Abid Raza, Muhammad Arshad Raza, Abdul Rehman,
Hafiz Khalil-ur-Rehman, Hafiz Ehsan Saeed, Muhammad Saeed,
Abdul Sattar Safeesi, Abdul Sattar, Syed Zia Hussain Shah,
Zahid Sultan, Muhammad Tariq, Muhammad Tariq and Badar-uz-Zaman.
Seventeen have been released.
They are: Ahmad Ali, Muhammad Anwar, Faiq Iqbal, Muhammad
Ishaq, Muhammad Jamaluddin, Ejaz Ahmed Khan, Muhammad
Kashif Khan, Tariq Aziz Khan, Hafiz Liaqat Manzoor, Abdul
Maula, Majid Mehmood, Talli Mehmood, Abdul Razaq, Muhammad
Sagheer, Ghazi Salahuddin, Jan/Jehan Wali and Qaisir Zaman.
