WASHINGTON, Nov 1: At least 40 Pakistani citizens are still detained in US prisons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and some of them are participating in a hunger strike that started on the fourth anniversary of 9/11, according to human rights groups and media reports.
The Washington Post published a fresh list of detainees on Tuesday which has 434 names and 62 of them are Pakistani nationals. According to the newspaper, 21 of these 62 Pakistani prisoners have so far been released but 41 are still there.
The Pakistan embassy in Washington says that there is only one Pakistani prisoner in Guantanamo.
During a recent visit to Guantanamo, the US commander of the prison facilities, Maj-Gen Jay W. Hood, told this correspondent that ‘some’ Pakistani prisoners were still there but declined to say how many.
A US-based human rights group, Constitutional Rights Centre, said at least 250 prisoners were on hunger strike in the Guantanamo prison. Other human rights groups have reported recent suicide attempts by the prisoners.
In a 2,000-word front-page report published on Tuesday, the Post also reported recent suicide attempts by some of the detainees.
Lt-Col Jeremy Martin, spokesman for Joint Task Force Guantanamo, told this correspondent during a recent visit to the camp that there had been a total of 36 suicide attempts by 22 detainees.
But he told the Post on Monday that at least three of these attempts were made in the past 20 months.
