International

Prisoners released

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD April. 26 . The First batch of Pakistani prisoners in Afghan jails, consisting of 30 persons was released by the interim administration of Hamid Karzai on Thursday.

Though it is nearly five months after the collapse of the Taliban and ascendance of the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan, neither the Karzai administration nor the Pakistan government has any clue to the number of Pakistanis held in Afghan jails.

Most of the detained Pakistanis are considered to be those who crossed the border to fight against the U.S. led coalition in its war against the Taliban and the al-Qaeda. A majority of those in the first batch of the released prisoners are aged persons.

The release of the prisoners came within 48 hours after the Pakistan President, Pervez Musharraf, announced in a rally in Peshawar that they would be brought back in a few days. Gen. Musharraf had accused some of the religious parties of misleading the people of the country and using them as fodder in Afghanistan. ``This is the first batch returning today and the remaining will be identified and repatriated in a few days,'' an official said.

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