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Thousands call for release of prisoners
LASHKARGAH (PAN): Thousands of people in southern Helmand province urged the government to release all individuals held on charges of having links to insurgents and drug trafficking.
Nearly 8,000 people, including tribal elders and religious scholars, issued the call at a gathering, organised by spiritual leader Syed Bahauddin Jan Agha, in the Camp area of Marja district.
Agha had talked to President Hamid Karzai and other high-ranking officials to free all those arrested for drug trafficking and insurgency, tribal elder, Gul Muhammad, told Pajhwok Afghan News.
The detainees are being held in Kabul, some other provinces and abroad. Participants -- most of them relatives of the detainees -- were ready to guarantee good conduct of the prisoners in future, Muhammad added.
Balbala, an elderly woman, said her two sons and a grandson were arrested by Afghan and foreign troops during an operation two years ago. The three are still being held in a Kabul prison, with their fate unknown. She urged the government to free the men.
His brother was arrested for smuggling drugs in his car three years ago, said Juma Khan, a resident of central Uruzgan province. A court sentenced him to 14 years in jail. Khan said the drugs did not belong to his brother, a taxi driver.
Production of opium in Afghanistan only benefited international drug mafia, said Syed Koko Agha, brother of Syed Bahauddin Agha. He viewed narcotics as the main reason behind the insurgency and human trafficking.
People from Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Uruzgan, Maidan Wardak and Nangarhar provinces attended the gathering, he said.
Deputy Governor Abdul Sattar Mirzakwal, who also attended the meeting, said the jirga showed that the security situation had improved in Marja. It was a good opportunity for the people to present their demands to the government, he concluded.
Thousands call for release of prisoners | Pajhwok Afghan News
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