WASHINGTON, Aug 27: The United States has not yet decided whether to release more than 600 Pakistanis in jails across Afghanistan, a State Department official told Dawn on Tuesday.

Pakistan has officially asked the US to allow Afghanistan to send home the prisoners who were arrested for fighting alongside the Taliban.

Asked to comment on Pakistan’s request, the official said: “It is still under consideration what to do with those prisoners. We have not made a decision yet.”

Afghanistan has agreed to return the prisoners, but the US says it must screen them first.

Foreign Minister Mian Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri discussed the matter with the Afghan foreign minister and the US special envoy for Afghanistan during a visit to Kabul last week.