25/09/2007
Pakistan will soon extradite 19 Algerian "Afghan fighters" to Algeria, local media reported Tuesday (September 25th). The men have been held in Pakistan since 2001 by the US-led anti-terror coalition that fought the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan. The Pakistani interior ministry and Algeria's embassy in Islamabad are working closely to arrange their return home in line with a legal agreement the two countries sealed in 2004. The men will likely return to Algeria several weeks after the holy month of Ramadan is over. Twenty other Algerian detainees in Pakistan were deported to Algeria in July 2006. According to El Watan, the US has officially protested the move.