19 July 2004	Monday	01 Jamadi-us-Saani 1425

KABUL, July 18: Afghanistan has released 66 Pakistani prisoners who had been in jails since the US-led war toppled the hardline Taliban regime in late 2001, officials said on Sunday.

The release came on Saturday following a decree issued by President Hamid Karzai, the president's office said in a statement. Pakistan also reciprocated by releasing 34 Afghans simultaneously, the statement said.

Afghanistan last week agreed to release 500-600 Pakistanis captured during the US-led war in the country. An interior ministry official said in Islamabad on Wednesday that a batch of some 100 Pakistani prisoners would be repatriated in the near future.

He said Pakistan also agreed to release hundreds of Afghans detained for entering the country illegally. The agreement on the release of prisoners came following talks Pakistani Interior Minister Faisal Saleh Hayat held in Kabul and Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah in Islamabad earlier in the week. -AFP