PESHAWAR, July 23: The court of a judicial magistrate here on Tuesday issued a contempt of court notice to the superintendent of Haripur prison for not releasing 35 pro-Taliban  Pakistani prisoners.

The  presiding officer, Hafiz Naseem Akbar, had earlier granted bail to 95 Pakistanis who were arrested after they were airlifted from Afghanistan. The prison authorities released 60 prisoners, whereas rest of the 35 prisoners were not released, stating that they were declared “Black” by  the provincial home department.

A contempt of court application was filed by advocate Ijaz Khan on behalf of the 35 prisoners, stating that by not releasing them the prison authorities had violated the court order. The court had directed on July 18 to release the said 95 prisoners after  furnishing two sureties of Rs 100,000 each.  The application will be taken up for hearing on 27th.

Most of the prisoners belong to Tehrik Nifaz-i-Shariat Mohammadi, a banned organisation and had accompanied  the Tehrik’s chief, Maulana Sufi Mohammad to Afghanistan in support of the then Taliban government. The applicants claimed that the government had divided the prisoners into three categories: white, grey and black. They claimed that the government had not been releasing the prisoners declared black.