ISLAMABAD: Ten Pakistani detainees have been released from the infamous Bagram prison in Afghanistan and repatriated to Pakistan, officials from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) told the families of the detainees on Thursday.

According to a statement issued by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP) — the firm representing the detainees’ families in court — Pakistani authorities have yet to issue any confirmation regarding their release to their families or their legal team. A senior interior ministry official Dawn spoke to also claimed to have no knowledge of the detainees’ return.

Among the 10 men released are Awal Noor, Bismillah Khan, Iftikhar Ahmed, Paizoo Khan, Farman Shah, Abdul Sattar, Shah Khalid, Wajid Rehman, Rehmatullah and Sallah Mohammad. According to their families’ lawyers, all have been held for several years without charge and access to legal counsel.

A JPP spokesperson, commenting on the lack of information about the prisoners’ release, told Dawn: “This is exactly what they did last time. No one told us they had been released. We found out when ICRC called the families and told them their relatives had been freed.”

The JPP originally filed a petition in the Lahore High Court in 2010, asking the government to repatriate Pakistani citizens who had been illegally detained in Bagram since the facility opened in 2002.

On Jan 16, 2012, the state counsel, appearing on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, told the court that as many as 40 Pakistani citizens were being held in Bagram.

Of these, six were repatriated on Nov 16, 2013. However, the spokesperson said, they were held by Pakistani authorities for nearly two months before being allowed to return to their families sometime in January this year.

On April 4, 2014, the counsel for the foreign ministry informed the court that 11 more detainees would be “coming home by May-end”.

One of the released detainees, Pakpattan-resident Iftikhar Ahmed, is said to have a history of mental illness. He disappeared in January 2010 from the border area of Chaman. But it was only six months after his disappearance that the ICRC informed his family that he was being detained in Bagram.

Another returning detainee, 24-year-old Awal Noor, was only 16 when he was picked up from the Pak-Afghan border near Paktika Margha.

JPP lead counsel Sarah Belal said she was relieved to hear of the 10 men’s release, but added that it was disappointing that the government had failed to notify their families.

Published in Dawn, May 16th, 2014