PESHAWAR, Sept 18: Three Russian captives including an army deserter were released from the Peshawar Central Prison on Thursday on the order of the Peshawar High Court.

The prisoners — Abdur Rasheed, Rustam and Marat —were handed over to the Chairman of World Prisoners Relief Commission, Haji Jawed Ibrahim Paracha, who would make arrangements for their traveling expenses and travel documents for their onward deportation to Russia.

Earlier, in the morning a two-member bench comprising Chief Justice Tariq Pervez Khan and Justice Syed Yahya Zahid Gillani ordered a prison official to handover the three prisoners to Mr Paracha.

Hearing a writ petition filed by Mr Paracha for their release, the bench directed him to inform the interior division when the prisoners would be deported after completion of their travel documents and other arrangements.

The bench observed that they had already completed their prison term and they could no longer be kept imprisoned.

These prisoners had remained in custody of security agencies for different durations and finally their detention was made public through an FIR registered at FIA police station in Rawalpindi on July 17, 2007. They were charged under section 14 of the Foreigners Act for illegal stay in Pakistan.

A special court had convicted them on July 28, 2008, and they were sentenced to the period they had already spent in prison with fine of Rs5,000 each in default of which they had to undergo two months more imprisonment.

Recently, they were shifted from Rawalpindi Adiala prison to Peshawar on an application of Mr Paracha.

Abdur Rasheed, whose Russian name was Irekgilzovi, told Dawn soon after his release that he had converted to Islam 11 years ago and was arrested at a checking point at Makeen Area in South Waziristan four years ago.

Although, he claimed that during his stay in Afghanistan he had not met Osama Bin Laden but praised him (Osama) for his “services for Islam.” He denied that he ever remained a member of Al-Qaeda stating that he had stayed in Afghanistan with the members of that organisation but was not part of the fighting group.

Aged about 49, Mr Rehman said that his wife and three children, who are also Muslim, have presently been residing in Turkey and he was very much eager to rejoin his family.

“In Russia it was compulsory for every youth to join the army during wartime due to which I had also served in it as a captain,” he said adding that later on he left the army and focused on Islamic studies which resulted in his conversion to Islam.

About Jehad he said that he had studied that Jehad or holy war was permissible in Islam against the evil forces.

He said that they had to migrate from Russia as there was no religious freedom to Muslims and they had been facing many problems there.

The other two prisoners, Rustam (31) and Marat (32) claimed that they were arrested at Taftan last year when they were crossing over into Pakistan from Iran. “We never remained attached to any jehadi organisation and we were visiting Pakistan so as to acquire religious education,” said Rustam in broken English.

Marat claimed that he was a tax lawyer in Moscow and converted to Islam in 2004, whereas Rustam was an engineer running his small business in Moscow and converted to Islam in 2002. Both of them claimed that preaching by some Muslims in Russia inspired them and they decided to embrace Islam.

The beaming prisoners were visibly moved when they saw a big media corps at the entrance of the prison waiting for their release.

When they came out of prison a large number of people gathered there to catch a glimpse of them. Some of the people when came to know that they were Russian Muslims they started kissing their hands and that of Mr Paracha out of respect.