ISLAMABAD, 22 April 2006 — Pakistan has formally asked the United States to provide the list of Pakistanis detained at Guantanamo prison, Foreign Office sources confirmed yesterday. They said Washington was hiding information about the Pakistani detainees at Gitmo.

The official US roster shows only 22 Pakistanis at Guantanamo prison whereas the Interior Ministry and the Foreign Office received a large number of applications from the relatives of those believed to be detained there indicating the number of the detainees was much more than 22.

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told the upper house of Parliament recently that some 1,135 Pakistanis were arrested in Afghanistan by the US forces but only 612 were freed. The whereabouts of the remaining is not known. US recently handed over a list of Pakistanis to the Pakistan Embassy in Washington. The names of many listed in the Pakistan’s Interior Ministry record are missing from the US list. Pakistani courts have also received a large number of applications from the families of those missing after the Afghan war and believed to be at Guantanamo.

Pakistan has been checking with Afghanistan about the whereabouts of its nationals regularly. Afghan warlord Abdul Rashid Dostum has released over 1,000 Pakistanis captured by his militia.

On Wednesday, Islamabad made the registration of Afghan nationals in the country mandatory and also asked Kabul to provide a list of Pakistanis still in Afghan jails.

Recently, a delegation of the National Council of Churches visited Pakistan. The members of the delegation met the officials of human rights organizations and provided them with a list of Pakistanis reportedly missing from Afghanistan.

The difference between Islamabad and Washington on the issue cropped up when some US newspapers reported that a total of 40 Pakistanis were detained at Gitmo but the list provided by the US showed only 22.

Officials say they will provide the details of those not listed in the official US roster but have gone missing and are believed to be at the Guantanamo prison.