PESHAWAR, Nov 4: The Taliban are filling their jails with political prisoners as they round up anyone suspected of favouring their downfall, according to a French journalist released from the Islamic militia’s custody at the weekend.

Paris Match reporter Michel Peyrard, who was detained on October 9 with two Pakistani journalists, was released on Saturday and handed over to Pakistani and French officials at the Torkham crossing point. Held for 25 days in Jalalabad, Peyrard was able to interview numerous fellow detainees and build a unique body of eyewitness testimony on the security situation there.

Peyrard was held in one of an estimated six detention centres in Jalalabad.

“These centres are for political detainees whose numbers were growing all the time. There were clearly organised roundups taking place,” Peyrard told reporters in Peshawar.

“ The main prison in Jalalabad is full,” he said. “I think there are now around 400 prisoners, compared to 150 on September 11” — the date of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Many, according to Peyrard, had supported the Taliban when they came to power in 1996 but were now suspected of plotting against the Islamic militia.

“Anyone suspected of putting forward a possible alternative (to the Taliban) has been rounded up and put in prison,” he added. Among those picked up, Peyrard noted a significant number of supporters of Afghan warlord Gulbadin Hekmatyar,living in exile in Iran.

Peyrard also said his Taliban captors seemed to be holding up well in the face of the US-led air strikes that began on October 7 in retaliation for the Taliban’s refusal to hand over suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden.

Despite some obvious fears during the initial days of the bombardment, the Taliban are now “totally calm,” he said.

While many had expected heavy blanket bombing, the feeling was that, in the case of Jalalabad at least, the US strikes had been “extremely limited,” he added.

The Paris Match correspondent said he had also been able to cope quite well with his time in Taliban detention.

“The first day was pretty difficult, with some rough treatment,” he said.

Peyrard and the two Pakistani journalists were paraded in the main market of Jalalabad, where Arab Mujahideen volunteers fighting alongside the Taliban had thrown stones and lashed out with rifle butts. “ But the Taliban intervened,” Peyrard said, adding that the majority of onlookers had not reacted violently.

After that, “the conditions in detention were pretty much manageable,” he added.—AFP