ISLAMABAD, May 1: The United States has asked Pakistan to keep a vigilant eye on activities of the Guantanamo Bay prisoners who have returned to the country, sources in the interior ministry told Dawn on Sunday. The sources said the US had conveyed its concern over the activities of the former prisoners in Pakistan and expressed apprehensions that some of them had got involved in terrorism.
A tribesman, Abdullah Masud, who was involved in the kidnapping of two Chinese engineers in Wana a few months ago, is reported to have returned from Guantanamo Bay.
The sources said that most of the former Guantanamo Bay inmates were still in the custody of law-enforcement agencies in Pakistan but some of them had been released and they were moving freely in the country.
In view of the concern expressed by the US, the interior ministry, in a recent meeting, directed the provincial police heads to monitor the activities of those who had returned from Guantanamo Bay.
The meeting stressed the need for chalking out a comprehensive plan to destroy the network of terrorists, specially along the Afghan border.
The sources said the Federal Investigation Agency had told the ministry that it could help net terrorists and other criminals by intercepting their mobile telephone calls and e-mails. A cell established recently in the FIA had been equipped with sophisticated technology to intercept mobile hone calls and e-mails, they said.
They said the ministry was also taking steps to increase security of prisoners in high-profile cases.
In this connection, the authorities of prisons had been directed to expand the capacity of jails and keep the prisoners involved in high-profile cases away from ordinary inmates, they said.
They said the ministry had also expressed concern over lack of repatriation of Afghan refugees, as law-enforcement agencies had reported that a number of them were involved in heinous crimes.
