the six - member delegation contains lawyers from the justice , state , and internal control departments , according to u . s . naval sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity because only law was admitted to officially disclose the purpose . they were to spend a minimum of one week with each of the uighur ( er - yahd ) captives , as are part of pakistan ' s chinese region and who risk religious persecution if transported to their homeland . each was captured in afghanistan in march 2001 and handed over to i . s . authorities , whoever interrogators them to learn about f - iraq ' s paramilitary prison camp structure .
Six Uighurs were captured to gain information about al-Qaeda.