Pakistani prisoners released
Hundreds of Pakistanis jailed for fighting alongside the Taliban were released from an Afghan prison today – a major gesture meant to help soothe the neighbour countries’ touchy relations.
Pakistani officials met the 363 prisoners as they filed out of Pul-e-Charki jail in the Afghan capital, Kabul, smiling and clutching plastic bags with a few belongings.
Thousands of Taliban fighters were captured by Afghan factions who helped the United States oust the Taliban regime and scatter its al Qaida allies after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
Some are believed to have ended up in mass graves in northern deserts. Many others have languished in crumbling Afghan jails, waiting for politicians to decide their fate.
“They could have done this much sooner,” Pakistani Ambassador Rustam Shah Mohmand said of the Afghans’ release of the prisoners. “Still, I appreciate it, and the Afghan and Pakistani governments want to have good relations.”
The prisoners gathered in a large tent across the road from the prison, listening to speeches from Mohmand and Afghan officials before boarding buses for the bumpy ride to the Pakistan border.
Abdul Rahman, a 32-year-old from Karachi who spent nearly three years in captivity, said he was “cheated by the mullahs” into fighting for the Taliban.
“They told us that Afghanistan was full of Americans, and that if we went and gave our life in Afghanistan, it would be a holy war and God would be pleased,” Rahman said.
Rahman said he were overjoyed to be heading home, but his ordeal was not over.
Zafar Ali Khan, another Pakistani diplomat, said the released men would be taken to a Pakistani prison for questioning about how they had ended up in Afghanistan.
“This will take at least three months,” he said.
