DHAKA: Afghanistan will release 88 prisoners as planned even though the United States considers them dangerous and wants them to remain in detention.

The board reviewing their cases told media, reports The Jerusalem Post.

The prisoners are being held at a jail at the Bagram air base north of Kabul. The United States only recently transferred the prison to Afghan control after it had become a serious source of tension with the Afghan government.

President Hamid Karzai instructed Afghan intelligence officials to provide the review board with more evidence against the prisoners, after the United States said there was proof of their involvement in the killing of foreign troops and they posed a serious threat to security.

But the head of the review board, Abdul Shakor Dadras, said the evidence did not warrant keeping the prisoners any longer.

‘The documents we have seen so far provide no reason to convict them,’ Dadras told media late on Sunday.

‘Our decision is to release them as soon as possible if there is no incriminating evidence against them.’

BDST: 1458 HRS, JAN 06, 2014
Edited by Robab Rosan, Current Affairs Editor