Seventeen Pakistani prisoners held for months by the authorities after being freed from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba were released Monday from a jail in Lahore, capital of Punjab province.

These Pakistanis were arrested in Afghanistan and flown to Guantanamo Bay when the former Taliban government was toppled in 2001, according to the official Associated Press of Pakistan.

Punjab provincial government religious affairs advisor Hafiz Tahir Mehmood Ashrafi supervised the release process. The released men were offered meals outside the jail before returning to their respective homes in different cities of the province.

The relatives of these people have given an assurance that they would not be involved in any terrorist activity inside or outside Pakistan, said Ashrafi, adding only six Pakistanis still remain in the Guantanamo Bay prison.

Thousands of Pakistanis went to Afghanistan to join the Taliban to fight against the United States in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in 2001.

Hundreds of them were apprehended by the US-led troops. Some were taken to the Gauntanamo Bay prison while others were imprisoned in Afghanistan.

Source: Xinhua