KABUL, Feb 5: More than 170 Taliban and other fighters surrendered on Sunday as part of a government amnesty scheme, vowing to lay down arms and work to rebuild war-ravaged Afghanistan, officials said.

The men travelled from various provinces from across Afghanistan to Kabul for a ceremony at which their surrender was announced by the head of the government’s reconciliation commission, Sebghattullah Mujaddadi.

They included members of the Hezb-i-Islami faction of Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

“In the ceremony today 172 brothers who were former Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami members surrendered,” commission spokesman Sayed Sharif Yousufi said.

More than 1,000 Taliban and Hezb-i-Islami members have signed up to the amnesty scheme since it was launched less than a year ago, Mr Yousufi said.

One of the former fighters, Qazi Juma Khan from the Hezb-i-Islami, said the men wanted to help rebuild Afghanistan. —AFP