May 18, 2002	Saturday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 5, 1423

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ISLAMABAD, May 17: Negotiations between the Pakistan and Afghan  governments are deadlocked over the future of about 590 Pakistani Jihadis lavishing in detention centres in Afghanistan, official sources said on Friday.

The authorities are seeking repatriation of the detainees, while the Afghan interim government is pressing for their trial in Afghanistan.

Another contentious issue, the sources divulged, was that there were serious differences even within the Afghan government about the future of the people, with one faction ready to deport them to Pakistan and the other insisting on their trial.

Most of the detainees airlifted to Pakistan by military planes after being released are weak and some of them have even lost their memory, sources said.

Of the 204 persons released, three or four have fractured bones, a source said and added that another eight to 10 persons were too week to walk. Some of them did not remember their names  and families.

The Afghan authorities have released 115 men belonging to the NWFP, 55 of Punjab, 31 of Sindh, two of Balochistan and one of Islamabad.

According to the sources, 49 of the released people were between 40 and 55 years age and they were from Malakand and its surroundings. They were hard-liners while the others were 11 to 15 years old.

Some teenage boys belonging to different Madaris said: “We had been asked by our teachers to help the Taliban.”

The released persons were shifted to the Peshawar jail while those who were critically ill and weak were taken to hospital.