LAHORE/ISLAMABAD: The government admitted on Friday that the 10 Pakistanis recently released from Bagram prison were indeed in the custody of local authorities.

The announcement, made by the interior minister, came as the Lahore High Court asked the Interior Ministry to present a report on the whereabouts of the 10 released from the infamous prison in Afghanistan.

At a press briefing held in the capital, Minister for Interior Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan acknowledged that the 10 detainees had indeed been released from Bagram, adding that they were currently being ‘processed’ by local authorities.

Earlier in the day, Lahore High Court Judge Justice Khalid Mehmood Khan issued orders to the Interior Ministry while hearing an urgent application filed by Justice Project Pakistan (JPP), the firm representing the detainees’ families in court.

The judge ordered that the official concerned should update the court regarding the status of the detainees at the next hearing, which is scheduled for May 20.

Sarah Belal, counsel for the detainees’ families, told the court that the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) had confirmed that 10 of the Pakistani citizens detained at Bagram jail had been released and repatriated.

However, Pakistani authorities had not directly provided any information to the detainees’ families or their legal team, she said.

She asked the court to order the government to confirm the release of the citizens and inform the families of their whereabouts.

Families’ frustration: On Friday, the family of one of the released men, Iftikhar Ahmed, was also present in court. Iftikhar’s brother, Waqar Ahmed, told Dawn he had no idea his brother had been released.

“No one told us, until the ICRC contacted us on Thursday morning. We called up various high-ups, including the Foreign Office and the Interior Ministry, but no one would tell us anything,” he said.

Waqar, who was accompanied by his wife, an uncle and Iftikhar’s wife Fatima, looked visibly frustrated. “When the people who were holding him have let him go, what right do local authorities have to hold him,” he asked.

He said the family was going back to Pakpattan to await word on Iftikhar’s whereabouts.

Published in Dawn, May 17th, 2014