'800 Pakistanis in Afghan prisons'

Questions have been raised over the treatment of the detainees

Zaffar Abbas BBC correspondent in Islamabad

Pakistan says the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has given it a list of several hundred detainees, who it believes are Pakistani nationals being held in prisons in Afghanistan.

A foreign ministry spokesman said the government was presently verifying the names mentioned in the list, and would then take appropriate measures to try to bring them back.

The spokesman, Aziz Ahmed Khan, did not give the exact number of people who were on the list of detainees but said they were about 800.

He said once the verification process was complete, Pakistan government would take up the matter with the Afghan authorities for their extradition.

Holy warriors?

Several thousand Pakistanis went to Afghanistan during the days of the Taleban to support what they saw as a genuine Islamic government.

Most had gone to fight what they thought was a holy war

Several hundred of them were hardened Islamic militants who fought along the side of the Taleban and al-Qaeda against the Northern Alliance forces when the Taleban controlled most of Afghanistan.

However, most Pakistanis who went to Afghanistan only did so after the start of the US-led military operations.

They crossed the borders on the response of the Taleban and Pakistani Islamic leaders, who had given a call for jihad or holy war against the US-led forces.

Most of these were emotional tribesmen, and were not members of any Islamic militant group.

Verification

With the fall of the Taleban, the majority of them were either arrested by the winning side, or returned to Pakistan to be detained by the local authorities.

Since then the ICRC has gathered information about the detainees from various nationalities who are presently in different prisons in Afghanistan.

One such list of suspected Pakistani militants has been handed over to the authorities in Islamabad.

However, the spokesman said they were not sure if all those on the list were Pakistani nationals, and made it clear that their case would be taken up with the authorities in Kabul only after proper verification.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's military spokesman, Major General Rashid Quereshi said the country's border with Afghanistan remains sealed to prevent the Taleban or al-Qaeda members from crossing over into the country.