LAHORE, July 26: The Lahore High Court allowed a lawyer on Friday to visit 78 prisoners arrested while crossing over from Afghanistan following the US military strikes there in October 2001 and disposed of his petition agitating the matter.

Deputy Attorney-General Sher Zaman Khan informed Justice Tasadduq Husain Jilani, who heard Advocate MD Tahir’s petition, that 363 Pakistanis were caught crossing over into Tribal Areas from Afghanistan without travel documents. They were interrogated at the Haripur jail and categorized into ‘black,’ ‘grey’ and ‘white’ according to evidence of their involvement in violent activities. Those falling in the last two categories were transferred to the provinces of their domicile.

Advocate-General Maqbool Ilahi Malik submitted that 43 ‘whites’ were transferred to the Central Jail, Lahore. Thirty-eight of them, he said, had been released and five re-categorized as ‘grey.’ In all, 78 ‘grey’ detainees were being held under Section 3 of the Maintenance of Public Order Ordinance for 90 days.

The petitioner-lawyer said the prisoners could not be held under the MPO as they had not created any disturbance in Pakistan. He insisted that he be allowed to see the prisoners in jail and file a rejoinder to the official comments. Justice Jilani asked the AG to let Mr Tahir visit the detainees in jail and disposed of his petition.