PESHAWAR, Nov 27: Some 300 volunteer fighters belonging to Tehrik-i-Nifaz-i-Shariat-i-Mohammed (TNSM) have been taken as prisoners by the Northern Alliance’s commander at Jalalabad, TNSM spokesman Maulana Qiyamuddin told Dawn on Tuesday.

Out of over 8000 TNSM volunteer fighters who went to Afghanistan to reinforce Taliban positions in their fight against the US, between 2500 and 3000 were missing, said the TNSM spokesman.

“Although a majority of our volunteer fighters has returned, there are some 2500 to 3000 people whose whereabouts are not known,” said Qiyamuddin when contacted by telephone at his native area Maidan in Dir district on Tuesday.

He said that contacts established with the authorities of Nangarhar province of Afghanistan had led to know that 300 to 350 TNSM fighters were being kept at a prison in Jalalabad.

The acting chief of TNSM, when contacted, said the security in-charge of Nangarhar province of Afghanistan, commander Hazrat Ali, had conveyed to the TNSM leadership in Dir, last week, that the detained Pakistanis belonging to TNSM would be sent back to Pakistan via the Torkham border.

“We are still waiting for them to be handed over to Pakistani authorities, at Torkham,” said the TNSM acting chief.

The TNSM leaders said that they came to know about the TNSM men taken as prisoners in Jalalabad by a three-member delegation, involving former Afghan commanders, which is at present on a visit to Afghanistan to secure safety of the Taliban’s foreign troops belonging to Pakistan.

Maulana Qiyamuddin said that the three-member delegation comprising former governor of the Kunar province Haji Roohullah, Samiullah and the head of Council for Understanding and National Unity Haji Hayatullah after holding talks in the Nangarhar province had proceeded to Kabul to meet Northern Alliance military commander Fahim.