ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, Aug. 7 (UPI) -- The Afghan government has decided to release more than 2,000 Pakistani prisoners it has been holding since last November, a government official said Thursday.
An adviser to the provincial government in Lahore told journalists that Afghan President Hamid Karzai has decided to release all Pakistani prisoners languishing in Afghan jails since the fall of the Taliban regime.
Most of them are religious volunteers who went to join their fellow Muslims to fight U.S. forces when they invaded Afghanistan on Oct. 7.
Most of them were arrested from the northern city of Kunduz when it fell to Northern Alliance forces in November last year.
"We assured the Afghan government that most of these prisoners are innocent civilians who were misled by pro-Taliban priests," said provincial adviser Hafiz Tahir Mahmood.
Although allied with the Taliban, Pakistan dumped the religious militia after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the United States, and joined the U.S.-led war on terror.
