KABUL, Aug 16: The Afghan government will release hundreds of foreign nationals who were caught fighting alongside the Taliban last year, an intelligence official said on Friday.

The majority of the prisoners are Pakistanis, the official said, adding they were being released as a “gesture of goodwill and for improving relations with Pakistan”.

“They will be freed in several rounds in groups of 20s or 30s in the near future,” the official said. He said nearly 1,000 prisoners, including some Arabs, were in detention centres controlled by Afghan warlords in different provinces and Kabul.

They were caught mainly from northern Afghanistan during the last days of the Taliban.

“We are releasing these people...They are real fanatics and belong to Pakistan’s Lashkar-i-Taiba, and Sipah-i-Sahaba”, the official added.

Three months ago, Uzbek warlord General Abdul Rashid Dostum released several hundred tribal volunteers from his jails in northern Afghanistan.

Human rights groups have criticized Afghan warlords for maltreating Taliban detainees and prisoners from the Al Qaeda network.

BOMB BLAST: A small bomb exploded outside the ministry of communications in the centre of Kabul on Thursday night, smashing a few windows but causing no injuries.