Team leaves for Kabul for release of prisoners

25 Jan, 2004

A five-member delegation of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League on Saturday left for Kabul on a three-day visit to get released scores of Pakistanis, languishing in Afghan jails.
PML sources told Business Recorder that PML team would meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Interior Minister Dr Abdullah Abdullah and other high-ranking government officials.
PML Secretary General Salim Saifullah Khan is leading the delegation, which apart from convincing the Afghan government to release the detained Pakistani prisoners, will hold discussions with Afghan leadership on matters of common interest.
Hundreds of people, mostly from the tribal areas, crossed the border to fight along side the Taleban against the United States-led coalition forces in 2001.
Several of these were killed while the rest were taken prisoners by different Afghan warlords and kept in miserable conditions after the fall of Taleban regime.
Though the Karzai government has so far released over 600 prisoners, however, it is believed that still around one thousand are in captivity.

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