Freed Taliban supporters to return to Pakistan

A military aircraft left for the Afghan capital Kabul today to bring a batch of 30 Pakistani supporters of the Taliban who have been freed by the Afghan government at the request of Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, a senior Pakistani official said.

The men are among hundreds of Pakistanis who had gone to Afghanistan to fight alongside the former Taliban rulers against the United States and the northern based alliance.

An unknown number of Pakistanis mostly hardline Islamists and Pashtun tribesmen were killed and hundreds taken prisoners as the orthodox Islamic militia’s rule collapsed last year because of the relentless US bombing.

All the men being freed are old people and have not been found to be involved in any terrorist activity, Noor Saghir, a senior official in the Pakistani information ministry told The Associated Press.

Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesman Aziz Ahmed Khan will receive them in Kabul, he said.

A Pakistan military C-130 plane will bring them to Pakistan’s northern border city of Peshawar where they will again be screened by security officials, he said.

‘‘This is the first batch of prisoners being freed’’ in response to Musharraf’s request, he said. ‘‘We hope to hear about the release of (the) second batch in a day or two.’’

Musharraf visited Kabul earlier this month in a landmark visit in which Afghan government’s interim leader Hamid Karzai promised to free Pakistani prisoners languishing in Afghan jails.

Pakistanis went to Afghanistan using rugged mountain passes defying their government, which is a key ally of the US-led war against terrorism.