The authorities in Afghanistan have released 66 Pakistani prisoners who were accused of fighting alongside the former Taleban regime and al-Qaeda against American-led forces 18 months ago.
A spokesman for the deputy defence minister, General Abdul Rashid Dostum, said he still considered the men dangerous, but they were set free because of a decree from the Afghan president, Hamid Karzai.
The prisoners were released from a jail in the northern town of Sheberghan, and handed over to a Pakistani non-governmental organisation which was to take them by bus to Kabul and then on to Pakistan.
The local governor told the prisoners to return to their homes in Pakistan, live peaceful lives and not join what he called any terrorist organisations.
The prisoners were captured in northern Afghanistan in November and December 2001.
From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
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