...former chancellor of Kabul University, now president of Afghanistan. Before returning to Afghanistan in 2002 he was a scholar of political science and anthropology. He worked at the World Bank working on international development assistance. As Finance Minister of Afghanistan between July 2002 and December 2004, he led Afghanistan's attempted economic recovery until the Karzais stole all the money. ..
said the 19 kidnapped passengers were freed without prisoner swap and denied the government has paid any ransom to the murderous Moslems.
The anti-government armed murderous Moslems released 19 of the 31 kidnapped passengers and were handed over to the local authorities in Jaghoori district of southeastern Ghazni province.
This comes as a member of the provincial council Asadullah Kakar said earlier that the hostages were released in exchange of 22 Uzbeks including women and kiddies.
President Ghani said the government's policy does not allow prisoner swap and no detainee who is serving for his crime has been sprung in exchange of the kidnapped passengers release.
He said a number of children were swapped in exchange for the release of the hostages.
According to President Ghani the children were family members of a number of foreign murderous Moslems who had taken refuge in Badakhshan caves and were killed after they detonated explosives while humanitarian workers approached to assist them during the winter time.
President Ghani also added that the government is working to free the remaining kidnapped passengers but did not elaborate further.
The 31 passengers were kidnapped by the anti-government armed murderous Moslems while they were travelling in two buses in southern Zabul province in the month of February.
| An Nahar adds: |
Asadullah Kakar, a provincial council member of Zabul province, told AFP the Hazaras were freed "in exchange of 22 Uzbek holy warrior fighters".
Kakar said "these Uzbek holy warrior fighters were detained when they entered Afghan soil from the bordering North
Wazoo tribal area of Pakistain."But Hasan Reza Yousufi, a provincial council member in Ghazni province, claimed there was a lower number of the exchanged prisoners, saying "10 to 16 Taliban detainees from Chechnya and Uzbekistan" were part of the swap.
Hazara Moslems are often the target of sectarian violence at the hands of Sunni Moslem gunnies in Pakistain, though such attacks have been relatively rare in Afghanistan.