KABUL (PAN): Afghan interior ministry officials say Pakistan ‎would hand over 42 Taliban prisoners in its custody to Afghanistan ‎soon. ‎

Addressing a news conference on Thursday, Interior Ministrys ‎spokesman Zemaray Bashari said the demand from the Pakistani ‎government was made during a visit of the Interior Minister ‎Muhammad Hanif Atmar to that country. ‎

He said the interior minister also demanded the handing over of ‎Mullah Biradar to the Afghan government. ‎

To a question, he said that all those Afghans detained in Pakistan ‎should be handed over to the Afghan government. At the same time, ‎he said the Afghan government was ready to hand over all the ‎Pakistani prisoners to the government of that country. ‎

He said the Afghan side had demanded the handing over of 42 ‎nationals from the Pakistani side to the Afghan government. He said ‎they did not know that how many Afghans were presently ‎imprisoned in Pakistan. ‎

He said the Afghan delegation also asked for stepped up efforts for ‎the recovery of kidnapped Afghan diplomat Abdul Khaliq Farahi. ‎

dk/ma ‎