Afghan government releases Taliban prisoners

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Posted 12:46PM on Thursday, January 3, 2002

KABUL, Afghanistan - Afghanistan's new government on Thursday released more than 300 Taliban prisoners, some of whom have spent as long as five years locked up by the northern alliance. Security Ministry officials said it was the first of several planned prisoner releases - a gesture of national reconciliation. "We are very pleased with the government," said Abdul Shukur, one of 320 newly freed prisoners from different parts of the country who were dropped in Kabul, the capital, on Thursday. There, they boarded chartered buses bound for their villages. "God willing, I'm on my way home to see my family," Shukur told Associated Press Television News. It was unclear if the prisoners included al-Qaida fighters. Most of the freed prisoners appeared to be in good health. Some had spent more than five years in detention. Others were rounded up in October and November as the northern alliance, also known as the United Front, pressed its way toward Kabul. The men were transported to Kabul on Wednesday. They were handed over to village chiefs and tribal elders who came to Kabul to pledge their support to Hamid Karzai's new interim government, and to ask for the men's release. Prisoners ranged in age from their late teens to their 50s. Many carried luggage. One of those freed, Yar Mohammed, said he spent five years and two months in prison. "I thank the United Front ... and I ask for God's blessings to fall upon them," he said. "While I was there in prison, they treated me well - like a brother. And I will never forget it."