KOHAT, March 29: A team of lawyers from Turkey met two persons from their country undergoing three years rigorous imprisonment at the Kohat prison on the charge of entering Pakistan on expired visas three months ago, a source told Dawn on Thursday.

The team was allowed to meet the detainees after the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation and the national intelligence agencies cleared them of having any connection with Al Qaeda or Taliban.

They were confirmed to be members of a Tablighee Jamaat, which had left Raiwind for Afghanistan but was caught in the war in October last.

The source said that talks were going on between the Turkish authorities and the quarters concerned for the release of the men.

He said the prisoners would be released and sent to their homes once the legal formalities were completed.

An appeal of clemency was under process, the source said.

The two Al Qaeda members undergoing treatment at the combined military hospital here for the last two months have also been exonerated of all charges. The detainees were being treated for frost-bite and bullet injuries in their legs.

The source said that Amal bin Yousaf of Saudi Arabia (who claims to be from Algiers) and Noor Mohammad of Tunis had become a security risk for the hospital and arrangements were being made to shift them to their countries, but it would take some time because they were in bad health.

The CMH officials in a letter to the NWFP home department requested that the men should be removed from the hospital because their presence  was disturbing the routine and the movement of the staff. The request has been sent to the authorities for approval.

Army commandos have been guarding the prison and the CMH for three months to foil any attempt to get the suspects released, the source disclosed.

The source said the men were being treated as VVIP patients due to their family background, which was apparently the reason due to which their names were removed from the list of those Al Qaeda members who were ferried to Guantanamo Bay in Cuba.

The US and Pakistani intelligence agencies in their remarks about the four men had termed them “of no help to the investigations being conducted against Al Qaeda.”

The fate of four Macedonians detained here still hangs in the balance as nobody from their country or family has contacted the authorities for their release, it has been learnt.