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KABUL, March 16: Afghanistan has agreed to release hundreds of Pakistani prisoners who fought alongside the Taliban regime against US-backed opposition groups late in 2001, Pakistan’s ambassador in Kabul said on Sunday.
Ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand said the decision would improve ties between the two neighbours ahead of a visit by Afghan President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan next weekend.
“It is a welcome decision although it has come late in the day, but we would like to thank the Afghan government,” Mr Mohmand told a news conference at his residence in Kabul.
“We are on track for normalising and improving relations with Afghanistan and we believe that Pakistan and Afghanistan are natural allies.”
The decision to release the prisoners comes as a manhunt continues in both countries for former Taliban leaders as well as members of Al Qaeda group, wanted for the Sept 11 attacks on the United States.
Mr Mohmand said the decision would affect nearly 900 prisoners, most of whom are being held in a prison in the northern town of Shiberghan, and added they would be freed soon. Around 500 were freed last year.
Embassy officials said the decision would affect all Pakistanis held by the Afghan government, but added many more were still being held by local warlords. “That is the next phase, to try to secure their release,” said Second Secretary Aamar Aftab.
Mr Mohmand said few of the Pakistanis held in Afghan jails were linked to the Taliban or Al Qaeda, but had simply come to Afghanistan in October 2001 because they felt it was their duty to defend the country against US bombardment.
Mr Mohmand said all the prisoners would be checked by Pakistani authorities on their return home.
About the forthcoming visit of President Hamid Karzai to Pakistan beginning March 22, Mr Mohmand said: “We believe this will be a landmark visit, and it will certainly give an impetus, a fillip, to the political relations between the two countries, it would pave the way for greater economic contacts.”
During the visit President Karzai would meet President Pervez Musharraf and Prime Minister Zafarullah Jamali besides being a guest at the Pakistan Day parade in Islamabad on March 23.
Mr Mohmand said both the countries had reached an agreement to help regulate the repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan. “We hope that like last year a substantial number of refugees will come back to Afghanistan,” he said.
He said there are still about 1.5 million refugees in Pakistan after a similar number returned last year. — Reuters
EARLY RELEASE: Ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand, quoted by Radio Pakistan, said his embassy in Kabul was trying for an early release and repatriation of these Pakistanis, who had been held in various prisons of Afghanistan since the fall of the Taliban government, adds our staff reporter from Islamabad.
The radio quoted Mr Mohmand as saying in a telephone interview that about 1,000 Pakistanis were still being held in various Afghan jails.
About 580 of them are in the northern Afghan town of Shiberghan, 150 in the capital Kabul, about 100 at other places and the rest in the western province of Herat, he said.
The ambassador said arrangements would be made to airlift the prisoners from Shiberghan, in Balkh province, to Peshawar because heavy snowfall had closed the main Salang highway from the north to Kabul at Salang pass. However, prisoners lodged at other places will be transported by road, he said.
Mr Mohmand said Pakistani embassy was in touch with senior Afghan officials to help release and repatriation of detained Pakistanis.
