August 20, 2002	Tuesday	Jamadi-us-Saani 10, 1423

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ISLAMABAD Aug 19: The Charge d’affaires of Afghanistan, Mr Rahmatullah Musaghazi, has expressed the hope that up to 200 Pakistani prisoners languishing in Afghanistan’s different jails will be released in the coming few days.

In an informal chat with Dawn at the National Day of Afghanistan at a local hotel here on Monday, Musaghazi said there were about seven to eight hundred Pakistanis in Afghanistan’s jails. He said he had asked the authorities for their immediate release.

Replying to a question, he said there was every possibility that some Taliban and Al Qaeda elements might have entered Pakistan.

When asked about the Afghan prisoners languishing in various Pakistani jails, the Afghan envoy said: “We are assessing their position through various means.”

He said that about four to five thousand Afghans were believed to be held in various prisons of Pakistan and “we are in touch with the authorities to know the volume of their crime and disposal of minor cases.”

The Afghan embassy in Islamabad has directed its consulates in the four provinces to gather information on the number and the nature of cases against the Afghan prisoners so that the matter could be taken up with the authorities of Pakistan’s interior ministry.