WASHINGTON, April 14: The release of Pakistani prisoners in Afghanistan is being delayed because US authorities are interrogating them for their links with the Taliban and Al Qaeda groups, according to Interior Secretary Tasneem Noorani.

Mr Noorani, who was in Washington this week to attend the second meeting of the US-Pakistan joint working group on terrorism, also said that American authorities were willing to hand over 60 Pakistanis being held at the Guantanamo Bay prison camp in Cuba to Pakistan.

The interior secretary and his four-member delegation held discussions with US officials from the state, justice and homeland security departments.

Pakistani authorities believe that about 1,000 Pakistanis are still languishing in jails across Afghanistan. Most of them are from those thousands of volunteers who had gone to Afghanistan in 2001 to help defend the Taliban regime against the US forces. Many have been released, often after paying huge ransoms to Afghan warlords.

But those who are suspected of having links to the Taliban and Al Qaeda organizations are still being detained. When Pakistan urged the Afghan government to release all the prisoners, they informed Islamabad that the decision had to be taken by the US authorities who were still interrogating the prisoners.

Mr Noorani said he raised this issue with US officials in Washington who said they had already scrutinized most of the 1,000 Pakistani nationals still in Afghan jails and separated 100 suspects for further interrogation.

“They have promised to take a decision about the others in a week or so,” he added.

Mr Noorani said that US authorities had divided prisoners at Guantanamo Bay into three categories, black, grey and white. Those in the black category will be tried inside the United States. Those in grey may be sent back to the countries of their origin for prosecution, and those in white may be released.

US authorities are holding a total of 660 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, 60 of them from Pakistan.

Mr Noorani said that there’s no Pakistani in the black category. US authorities have indicated that most of the Pakistani prisoners are in the gray category and Washington was willing to return them to Pakistan for trial, he added.

Officials in Washington say that they are also willing to return prisoners of other nationalities to their home countries but the host countries are reluctant to accept them. “Since the prisoners were associated with Al Qaeda, authorities in those countries fear that bringing them home could cause retaliatory attacks by Al Qaeda. They want the United States to handle these cases,” said a US official.

While discussing the plight of the Pakistanis deportees, the Pakistani delegation urged US authorities not to handcuff them like common criminals. US authorities, however, pointed out that it was a civil aviation requirement and that pilots refuse to take off until all deportees are handcuffed.

The Pakistani delegation suggested using a seat belt that could be locked, thus preventing the passenger from moving about on his own.

Mr Noorani said that during a meeting with Justice Department officials, the Pakistani delegation informed them of the difficulties Pakistani students are facing in coming to the United States for studies.

“We raised all the concerns of the Pakistani students, from unfair denial to delay in visa processing. They were very sympathetic and have promised to help,” he said.