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| April 27, 2003 | Sunday | Safar 24, 1424 |
HRCP to seek Pakistanis’ release from Afghan jails
PESHAWAR, April 26: A three-member delegation of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan will visit Kabul next month to discuss the release of over 800 Pakistani prisoners, languishing in many jails of Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban regime.
HRCP chairperson Afrasiab Khattak told Dawn on Saturday that the delegation will meet with officials of Afghan government and coalition forces in Kabul to secure the release of prisoners.
He said that the delegation will leave for Kabul in the first week of May. Mr Khattak will lead the team and probably talk to US forces’ officials in Kabul regarding the release of prisoners.
The much-expected release of Pakistani prisoners was put off due to American pressure as they wanted all prisoners screened for links with Taliban and Al Qaeda before their release, the sources said. They added that Pakistani authorities had pinned a lot of expectations with the visit of Afghan president Hamid Karzai that Pakistanis imprisoned in Afghan jails would be set free.
These expectations were dashed to the ground as the Karzai administration handed over a list of senior Taliban suspects to Islamabad and sought their extradition for war crimes against the Afghan nation.
The sources said that Afghan deputy defence minister general Abdur Rashid Dostum had expressed willingness to set free some 575 Pakistani prisoners. Some 80 Pakistanis are reportedly in Panjshir while some 200 Pakistanis have been kept in Kabul jail.
They said that a team of the HRCP had met a representative of general Dostum in Peshawar who had assured that he (Dostum) was ready to set free all prisoners, if the central government did not object to the decision.
The Northern Alliance and forces of General Rashid Dostum had captured a large number of Pakistani nationals who crossed into Afghanistan to fight along with Taliban in October 2001.
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