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51 Pakistanis deported from US return home
(DPA)

10 February 2006


ISLAMABAD ¡ª Fifty-one Pakistanis detained on charges of violating immigration rules and other crimes and deported by the United States have returned home, news reports said yesterday.


A chartered Boeing-757 flight carrying the deportees, guarded by 15 US security officials, arrived in Islamabad on Wednesday. The deportees were allowed to go home since there were no charges against them in their home country, the English-language newspaper Daily Times reported.

All the passengers were handcuffed during the 19-hour flight.

The report quoted an unnamed US embassy spokesman as saying the deportees were involved in several cases including overstaying, travelling on fake documents, sexual assault, rape and possession of illegal weapons.

US law-enforcement agencies arrested them in Virginia and Texas and about 29 of them served up to 18 months jail terms before they were sent back home, an investigation officer told the newspaper.

Those who returned complained of ill treatment in American jails. ¡°Muslim prisoners in the US are treated roughly and they are not given proper food,¡± Tanveer Khan, one of the prisoners, told reporters after landing at Islamabad airport.

Following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the US tightened immigration laws and more than 2,000 Pakistanis have been deported since on various charges.