May 5, 2002	Sunday	Safar 21, 1423

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CHAMAN, May 4: Some 30 Pakistani prisoners, who fought alongside Taliban during last year’s fighting, arrived home on Saturday after being released from an Afghan prison.

The prisoners, mostly young but looking malnourished, were released on Thursday night from a notorious prison in Shiberghan in northern Afghanistan and arrived via Kandahar at the Pakistani border town of Chaman. Encouraged by the Islamic groups, thousands of Pakistanis went to Afghanistan last year to fight alongside the Taliban against the US-backed opposition.

“We went there to fight a holy war but we have been betrayed by Taliban who surrendered without informing us,” 30-year old Abdul Wasay told Reuters after arriving in Pakistan.

Wasay said they were kept in very poor conditions and fed one meal a day.—Reuters