Seventeen former prisoners at Guantanamo Bay, who were detained on their return home to Pakistan, were freed on Monday, with many alleging they had witnessed the desecration of holy Quran at the US jail. The men came back to Pakistan around nine months ago after being cleared by US authorities. They were finally released from jail after promising not to take part in militant activities.
"American soldiers have been committing desecration of the holy Quran at Guantanamo," Hafiz Ahsan Saeed, 27, told AFP as he emerged from the central jail in Lahore.
"There were various incidents. Once I saw them throw Quran in a bucket full of urine and feces," he said.
Saeed said he was arrested four years ago in Afghanistan on charges of having links with the al Qaeda terror network. He was kept in a jail run by brutal Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostam and then shifted to Guantanamo.
"The Americans declared me innocent but yet I have been in prison for about nine months in Rawalpindi and Lahore after being released from Guantanamo Bay," he said.
"I am not ashamed because I have not done any wrong act," Saeed added.
Another freed prisoner, 25-year-old Muhammad Hanif, said he was tortured and his beard was forcibly shaved by the US troops at the military jail in Cuba.
"The Americans removed our beards and have been spitting over the holy book," Hanif told AFP. The inmates at Guantanamo Bay protested at the abuse of the Quran and went on hunger strikes, he said.
An official said the 17 men had been released on the orders of President General Pervez Musharraf.
"We have released 17 prisoners after their parents and guardians furnished guarantees that they would not indulge in terrorist activities," said Tahir Ashrafi, the Punjab government's advisor on religious affairs.
"Still six to 10 Pakistani prisoners are detained at Guantanamo Bay and we hope that soon they will be here among us," Ashrafi added.
The US government has released the bulk of some 60 Pakistanis, who were kept as "enemy combatants" at Guantanamo Bay.
Around 600 Pakistanis held in Afghanistan have also returned home, and 40 more were due to return home on Tuesday, Ashrafi said.