ISLAMABAD, Nov 22: Five Pakistanis held by the US military at the Guantanamo Bay detention centre in Cuba returned home on Saturday, senior interior ministry official Brigadier Iqbal Cheema said.

“As a result of persistent efforts by the government of Pakistan and its parleys with the US government, five more Pakistanis detained at Camp X-ray in Cuba have returned home,” Mr Cheema told AFP.

The United States has so far released 21 Pakistanis since November last year while 37 were still in Camp X-ray, officials said. The government will continue to make efforts to secure the release of all Pakistanis, Mr Cheema added.

Security officials said the Pakistanis who arrived on Saturday will be interrogated before they are allowed to rejoin their families.

A total of 58 Pakistanis were captured in Afghanistan in November 2001 after the fall of hardline Taliban regime in a US-led campaign. They were suspected of being members of the Taliban militia allied with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda network.

The first Pakistani prisoner, Mohammad Sagheer, was released in November last year, and more were freed later in batches this year.

Sagheer, 53, has filed a case in a local court seeking 10.4 million dollars in damages from the United States for his “illegal detention, torture and humiliation.” Pakistan abandoned the Taliban after the Sept 11, 2001, attacks in New York and Washington and became a key ally in the US-led war against terrorism.—AFP