News - Afghanistan

The Pakistan government has promised to the Afghan peace delegation that the Pakistan military will not shell the eastern parts of Afghanistan, Afghan officials said.

"They promised that the missiles which hit the eastern parts of Afghanistan in Nangarhar or Kunar will stop after this," the High Peace Council deputy chief Attaullah Ludin told TOLOnews on Friday.

"The missiles harm people and can destroy the ties between the two countries," he added.

The pledge came during the three-day visit of the High Peace Council to Islamabad last week, led by Salahuddin Rabbani, in an attempt to resume peace talks suspended since the assassination of former HPC chairman Burhanuddin Rabbani last year.

Kunar provincial governor Fazlullah Wahidi said Friday that the missiles falling into Kunar province had seemingly stopped for the time being.

"In the past a week, no missile has landed in the province. Previously if it stopped for some time, missiles would [later] start again to be fired. Now we hope that after the delegation has visited Pakistan the shelling will not start again," he told TOLOnews.

For over a year, hundreds of missiles have reportedly landed in eastern parts of Afghanistan. Despite there being little impact in terms of human casualties, the provincial chiefs have said hundreds of families have been displaced after fleeing their homes because of the threat.

It comes as Pakistan released at least nine prisoners of the former Taliban regime on Afghanistan's request to indicate its support for the peace process.

The Associated Press on Friday reported that the son of a legendary Afghan mujahedeen leader was among the group of Taliban prisoners released.

Anwarul Haq Mujahid, son of the late Maulawi Mohammad Yunus Khalis who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s, was released Thursday and joined his family in the northwestern Pakistani city of Peshawar, AP quoted a cousin and a family friend saying.

Khalis, who was once invited to the White House by former President Ronald Regan, died in 2006, according to AP.