Kabul, Jan 15: Afghanistan today released 49 Pakistanis jailed for fighting for the ousted Taliban regime, hoping to improve relations with a powerful neighbour key to its battle against hardline Islamic militants. The prisoners were freed on the orders of President Hamid Karzai from a jail run by the Afghan Intelligence Service in the capital, Kabul, and handed over to Pakistani officials.
"They are all former Talibs arrested in different parts of Afghanistan," said Mohammed Harun Asefi, a police commander at the interior ministry. "I hope they go to their country and get an ordinary job."
The gesture matches a pledge by the Pakistani government to release afghan prisoners from its jails, and comes after Karzai and visiting Pakistani Prime Minister Zafarullah Khan Jamali pledged to work closely together to defeat terrorism.
Karzai has tried repeatedly to woo former Taliban supporters, saying only a hard core of fugitive leaders of the hardline Islamic militia are to be pursued as criminals and terrorists.
But he has also accused Pakistan of doing too little to prevent insurgents from using remote Pakistani tribal areas to launch attacks across the border in Afghanistan.
Bureau Report