PESHAWAR, June 8: A local court is seeking the provincial home department’s clearance for handing over 15 Bangladeshi detainees to a non-governmental organisation.

The no-objection certificate is being sought by the court of the additional district and sessions judge, Ikhtiar Khan. The Bangladeshi prisoners were charged with illegally entering Pakistan from Afghanistan after being arrested a few months ago.

They were held by the Khyber Agency’s tribal administration as they entered Pakistan via Torkham. They were sent to Peshawar central prison under Section 40 of the Frontier Crimes Regulations.

The court has fixed June 13 for the next hearing. The judge sent a letter to the secretary, NWFP home and tribal affairs department, asking him to allow the handing over of the prisoners to the chairman of the World Prisoners Relief Commission, Jawed Ibraheem Paracha, who filed an application in this regard.

Mr Paracha requested the court that the prisoners were innocent and should be handed over to him. He said that he would make arrangements for their deportation.

He claimed that some of the accused were young and had been imprisoned in the section reserved for juvenile offenders.

He claimed that they had gone to Afghanistan on legal visas and from there they had entered Pakistan seeking better jobs, adding that the ‘economic immigrants’ had changed their route for entering Pakistan.