KABUL, Jan 13: Afghanistan has released some 50 Taliban prisoners captured in the militia’s northern stronghold of Kunduz just weeks after the US-led bombing was launched, an official said on Monday.

The men, all Afghans, were jailed in Sheberghan prison, in northern Afghanistan, after their arrests in the wake of a two-week siege of Kunduz by anti-Taliban fighters in Nov 2001.

The prisoners were released on Friday under a decree issued by President Hamid Karzai, said Sayeed Noorullah Agha, an official based in Mazar-i-Sharif.

“These prisoners were part of 3,700 Afghan, Pakistani and Arab Taliban prisoners who were arrested altogether in Kunduz province,” Agha said.

He said 1,300 prisoners, including 500 Pakistanis, remained in Sheberghan.—AFP