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US to Release Two Pakistanis From Guantanamo Bay

Agence France Presse
October 13, 2006

ISLAMABAD , Oct 13, 2006 (AFP) -

Two more Pakistanis held at the US detention centre at GuantanamoBay in Cuba will be released later this week, Interior Minister Aftab Sherpao said Friday.

"They are expected to arrive (in Pakistan) on October 15," he said, adding that six other Pakistanis held at the Bagram US airbase in Afghanistan were also to be freed this week.

After the expected releases five Pakistanis will remain in GuantanamoBay and 14 will still be at Bagram, he told reporters.

The US government has already released scores of Pakistanis who were held as "enemy combatants" at the detention centre after the 2001 invasion of neighbouring Afghanistan by US-led forces.

The Pentagon said Wednesday that 17 other detainees were transferred from GuantanamoBay, reducing the population there to 440. It said 16 of the detainees were flown to Afghanistan and that the other went to Morocco.

The visibly weary and shaken Afghan detainees and an Iranian due for repatriation arrived in Kabul on Thursday, alleging they had suffered mental torture at the hands of their US military jailors.

They all denied links to Islamist terror groups such as Al-Qaeda and the Taliban -- the basis for their arrest by the US after it invaded Afghanistan following the September 11, 2001 attacks.

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