PESHAWAR, July 17: Three people of the Swabi district, who recently came to Pakistan after having been released by the Afghan government, have been set free from the Peshawar Central Prison following formal clearance by intelligence agencies.

Gulzar Ali, Ayub Gul and Sakhawat Syed were among 12 prisoners released by the Afghan government from different prisons and handed over to officials of the Khyber Agency in Torkham on July 4.

The tribal administration sent them to the Peshawar Central Prison under Section 40 of the Frontier Crimes Regulations.

The chairman of the World Prisoners’ Relief Commission, Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, then filed applications for their release with various forums.

Initially, he had filed an application before Peshawar District and Sessions Judge Miftauddin Khan, stating that the detained men could not be charged under the FCR, adding that they had not committed any crime in the tribal areas or in the “settled areas” of the country. He had also filed an application with the provincial home department for their release.

In the meantime, the assistant political agent of the Landi Kotal tehsil, on whose orders the people were detained, informed Mr Paracha that the detained men would be released once intelligence agencies cleared them.

Mr Paracha said that three other prisoners — Mohammad Razaq (Multan), Qaiser Luqman (Mardan) and Khan Wali Chota Lahore (Swabi) — had also been handed over to the administration and it was expected that they would be released in a day or two.

He said that four other prisoners from Punjab were also in the prison and he had been trying to acquire their security clearance from intelligence agencies. He identified these four prisoners as Muhammad Iqbal, Muhammad Ilyas and Muhammad Amjid from Lahore and Muhammad Boota from Gujrat.

Similarly, he said, two prisoners — Ahmad Shah from Peshawar and Imran from Khyber Agency — were in the prison after having been released from an Afghan prison.

The 12 prisoners had gone to Afghanistan for different purposes, including participation in the “holy war” against foreign forces and for labour work.