RAWALPINDI, Oct 11: A batch of 76 handcuffed Pakistanis including two women deported from the US arrived at the Islamabad airport amid tight security on Wednesday.

The chartered flight of Boeing 757 guarded by 18 US marshals and immigration officials arrived at the airport from New Jersey at around 12.30pm.

The detainees, who were handcuffed by the US authorities right from their detention camps, were unlocked about one hour after the plane touched down at the airport.

During the long distance flight, one of the Pakistani women detainees fainted and was given first-aid including oxygen.

The deportees had to pass through another ordeal when the FIA passport cell officials stopped them from leaving the airport and recorded their statements and took fingerprints, which lasted about three hours. A prison van was parked outside the departure lounge.

One of the deportees was handed over to the Anti-Narcotics Force as he was involved in a narcotics case.

The passports of the deportees were also seized by the FIA - apparently without any reason.

“A fine of Rs50,000 would be imposed if anybody’s passport was found fake,” the FIA passport official said.

Jahanzaib Khan, one of the deportees haling from Lahore, told Dawn that his passport was taken by the FIA. He said he would have to pay Rs50,000 if his passport was found fake. The treatment subjected to them by Pakistani authorities further drove the deportees into distress.

“How can it be fake? I got it from the Pakistani embassy in New York and it is a valid passport,” Mr Khan argued. Assistant director immigration Omer Hayat said most of the 76 Pakistanis were arrested in the US on charges of overstaying and travelling on fake documents, while some on the charges of rape, sexual harassment, extortion, theft/robbery and assault, etc.

Those in the latter category were put behind bars by the US authorities and later deported to Pakistan after their sentences were completed in jails.

The US security officials guarding the deportees handed them over to the FIA immigration authorities who recorded their statements, took fingerprints and other relevant details at the airport and also examined their case files.

Later, the immigration official said all the deportees were allowed to go as they had not been involved in any crime in Pakistan. However, one of them was handed over to the ANF authorities.

Asima Bilal Mirza, who was charged with overstaying, said the US authorities had picked her up during a raid on her house while her husband and two sons were still there. She said she was kept in detention centres in different cities and treated as a prisoner.

Over 2,000 Pakistanis have been deported from the US since 9/11. The last batch of 57 Pakistani deportees had arrived in Islamabad on May 18.