MANSEHRA, Aug 21: The 14 people nominated in the FIR for attack on foreign tourists near Ashoka engraved stones last month, were released after an interrogation team found them not involved in the incident.

Out of them, 13 belonged to a banned Jihadi outfit Harkatul Mujahideen, while one belonged to the defunct Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan.

A group of tourists comprising Germans, Austrians and Salvonians, received injuries when unidentified people hurled grenades on them while they were taking photographs of the Ashoka stones in the northwest of Mansehra town on July 13. The group had come from Rawalpindi and destined for China through the famous silk route.

In the attack, 13 people including nine foreigners, three locals and a watchman of the Ashoka rocks were injured.

After the incident, the local police had taken into custody hundreds of activists of banned Jihadi outfits, workers of the religious parties and Afghan refugees for interrogation. Later, the police nominated 14 people in the FIR and sent them to Peshawar for interrogation by a Joint Interrogation Team.

They have now been set free on the orders of a court after being declared innocent by the JIT. One of the accused, Mohammad Naeem, however, was rearrested by the Mansehra police in another case pertains to holding anti-US rallies in the wake of bombing on Afghanistan.