ISLAMABAD, Aug 31: The government was unable to secure a timetable for the release and return of over 850 Pakistanis detained in Afghanistan since the fall of Taliban last November in recent discussions with Afghan ministers.

Senior government officials told Dawn on Saturday that Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah gave a firm assurance during his recent visit to Islamabad that Pakistani captives would be repatriated, but refused to give a timeframe in this regard.

Abdullah announced at a press conference here last week that the first group comprising more than a hundred people would arrive in Pakistan in the next few days.

“There was no timetable given,” said a senior official of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He indicated that Pakistan did not want to press the Afghan government too hard on this matter. “The fact that they said they will release the prisoners soon is good enough,” added the official.

Kabul has already informed Pakistan that it is in the process of scrutinising records of detained Pakistanis who were to be released and repatriated. The repatriation would be carried out in various phases.

A government source pointed out that repatriation of Pakistani prisoners had been delayed on several occasions because of last-minute hitches. It was therefore difficult for the government to give a firm date, sources said.

Surveys conducted in Afghanistan by international agencies put the figure of Pakistani prisoners of war at around 1,200 immediately after the fall of the Taliban. Of these, more than 234 have been sent back to Pakistan. The last batch of 204 detainees, most of them teenagers, arrived here on May 12. The youngest of the lot were twelve-year-olds.

The US State Department’s spokesman said on Friday that the US was an interested party and would interview Pakistani prisoners before the Afghan government released them.

“We want to make sure that anybody that might be dangerous is kept in the proper channels in custody,” State Department spokesman Richard Boucher was reported as saying on Friday.

Officials here agreed that the latest US pronouncement could result in further delay in the return of the detainees.

“Our embassy in Kabul is in touch with the Afghan officials and if release of Pakistani prisoners is unduly delayed we will pursue the matter with them,” said a well-placed Pakistan government official.

On Wednesday, the State Department had said Kabul’s decision to release prisoners would not encourage violence and terrorism. The US government was given the assurance that Kabul and Islamabad had made arrangements to keep them from joining another Jihad.

During President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Kabul in April, President Hamid Karzai announced at a joint press conference that all Pakistani prisoners with no Al Qaeda links would be released.

Foreign Office spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan told reporters last week that about 11 Pakistanis detained in Afghanistan had been killed recently in an attempted jail-break.