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Former Taliban Fighters Sent Home
Wednesday, September 4, 2002
(12:03 GMT)
By Matthew Chance
CNN Correspondent

A Pakistani soldier escorts one of the prisoners to a military plane at Kabul airport, Afghanistan.
Image Credit: The Associated Press.

Hundreds more Pakistanis are still held in Afghan jails, as officials sort out whether they are linked to the Taliban or al Qaeda.

KABUL, Afghanistan -- CNN
Afghanistan has repatriated several dozen Pakistani prisoners, former Taliban fighters who were captured by the Northern Alliance and the U.S.-led coalition.

The 55 men were probed by Afghan and U.S. intelligence officers before being transferred to make sure they did not have ties to the al Qaeda network, whose leader, Osama bin Laden, is suspected of being the chief mastermind behind the September 11 attacks on America.

The prisoners were also examined to make sure they were not wanted for terrorist offences or had committed human rights abuses, the Afghan foreign ministry said on Wednesday.

Some of the men had been in custody in Afghanistan for as long as six years, captured by the Northern Alliance during its battles with the Taliban before the United States became involved.
(More: CNN.com News Source)
2002 © Cable News Network LP, LLLP.

Dan