KOHAT, May 12: A court on Saturday released four Bangladeshi nationals who had been arrested by intelligence authorities on suspicion of having al Qaeda links .

Chairman of the World Prisoners Relief, former PML-N MNA, Javed Ibraheem Paracha had filed a petition for their release in the court of additional district and sessions judge Hangu.

The court released the prisoners on Saturday on a surety bond of two persons with Rs8000 each and asked the petitioner to send them to their native country.

The suspects were arrested by Hangu police at the Tor Pul check post on the Afghan border last January. They had entered the Parachinar area from Paktia province of Afghanistan. They were identified as Rashid Mian, son of Mohammad Ali Shaman; Shimal Ahmed, son of Abdul Ali; Mohammad Salim, son of Abdul Malik, and Aiden, son of Anees.

After preliminary interrogations by a joint investigation team, they were sent to prison for entering Pakistan without proper travelling documents. The agencies said that they were smuggled from Bangladesh to India and then to Afghanistan by a group of human smugglers.