QUETTA, July 23: Pakistan has handed over 58 illegal Afghan nationals to Afghanistan on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in Chaman on Sunday.

According to official sources, the Afghans were arrested last week during a drive launched by police against illegal immigrants. Police had arrested around 250 Afghans from different areas of the provincial capital Quetta and booked them under the Foreigners Act.

The Afghans were handed over to the authorities concerned for interrogation during which it was proved that they had been living illegally in Pakistan and most of them belonged to the Taliban who were fighting inside Afghanistan.

A former Taliban commander, Mullah Hamdullah Achakzai, had also been arrested during the police campaign from the Nawa Killi region of the provincial capital. During interrogation he revealed that he belonged to the Taliban movement and was security in charge of Hilmand province when the Taliban were in power in Kabul.

Sources said that the authorities concerned after investigation decided to hand over the first batch of illegal Afghan immigrants to the Afghan government.

They had been released from the Quetta district jail and sent to the border town of Chaman under tight security where Pakistani border officials handed over 58 Afghans to Gul Lalai, the police commander of Spin Buldak district of Afghanistan.

Sources further said that soon more Afghans would be handed over to the Afghan government who had been living in Quetta illegally.