PESHAWAR, Oct 21: A group of 195 people, deported from Oman a few days ago, were sent to prison by a local court on Saturday. Some of them sobbed, saying their families did not have money to arrange for their release.

The deportees were in bad shape wearing torn and shabby clothes. Narrating tales of their ordeal, they said they were kept in inhuman conditions by the Omani and Pakistani authorities.

“My family had acquired substantial sums in the hope that I would earn money in Muscat,” one deportee, who belongs to Mardan, told journalists at the judicial complex.

About 600 Pakistanis were deported to Karachi by the Oman authorities claiming they were illegal immigrants. From Karachi, 195 of them were brought to Peshawar as they belong to NWFP and tribal areas.

They have been charged by the Federal Investigation Agency under sections 3 and 4 of the Passport Act, 1974, and section 17 of the Emigration Ordinance, 1979. They were produced before the court of Judicial Magistrate Ashraf Ali.

Chief Prosecutor Ikramullah Khan requested the court to remand the accused to FIA’s custody for seven days for investigation.

The court turned down the request and sent them to prison and ordered that they should be produced on Nov 4.