WASHINGTON, Feb 5: Hundreds of Pakistanis who fought alongside the Taliban are reportedly being held by Afghan warlords who are demanding ransom from relatives for the safe return of the hostages.

A despatch in Tuesday’s Washington Post quotes aid workers and Pakistani journalists as confirming the hostage-taking, saying warlords were threatening to kill their captives if their demands were not met.

The chairman of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, Afrasiab Khattak, told a Post reporter: “It’s just pure ransom. And there are so many people involved in the middle. It’s a serious problem.”

The HRCP has prepared a list of 1,000 missing Pakistanis and believes that there may be another 1,000 to be added. Mr Khattak said his commission was trying to get information from the Red Cross and from the Afghan authorities.

The return of warlordism after the ouster of the Taliban regime has been widely reported in the US media, but moves to expand the area of operation of the international security force in Afghanistan remain stymied and have so far received less than enthusiastic backing.

According to the Post, demands for ransom are routed through Afghans living in Pakistan, some of them in refugee camps, who have tribal connections with warlords across the border. The demands originate from the victors in the Afghan war —- officers of the US-allied Northern Alliance militia and tribal strongmen who captured prisoners in the fighting. “There is no evidence that leaders of Afghanistan’s new government are involved,” the paper says.

KILLINGS CONFIRMED: Meanwhile, the United States has acknowledged that friendly Afghan troops may have been killed during a recent American raid on the village of Hazar Qadam, 100 miles north Kandahar.