May 12, 2002	Sunday	Safar 28, 1423

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PESHAWAR, May 11: Another batch of over 200 Pakistani prisoners freed from a jail in northern Afghanistan arrived here on Saturday.

The 250 freed prisoners were flown to Peshawar in three C-130 planes from Mazar-i-Sharif, the stronghold of Afghanistan’s deputy defence minister, Gen Rashid Dostum.

The weary and tired-looking prisoners, most of them in their teens, had been held in various prisons, including the notorious Shiberghan prison in northern Afghanistan. They were given medical treatment at the airport by a team of doctors of the provincial health department.

With the arrival of the latest batch, the total number of Pakistani prisoners released from Afghan jails has now reached the 280 mark.

The NWFP Minister for Law, Athar Minallah, said that there were 690 Pakistani prisoners in various Afghan jails. “We hope that the remaining Pakistani prisoners would also be released soon,” he told a news conference.

President Gen Pervez Musharraf during his visit to Kabul early last month had sought help from the Afghan interim leader, Hamid Karzai, in getting the Pakistani prisoners released.

Thousands of Pakistanis had crossed the border and joined the Taliban militia when Washington declared war on terror and launched attacks against the ruling militia and Al Qaeda network.

“These people had violated the law of the land by illegally crossing over into Afghanistan. The government has taken a very lenient view. We realise that they were misguided but they would nonetheless be screened as a precaution before setting them free,” the minister said.

The prisoners, most of them belonging to Karachi, Hyderabad, Khanewal, Mirpur, Batagram, Multan, Sheikhupura and the northern districts of NWFP, would be moved to Haripur central prison.