ISLAMABAD, Aug 24 (AFP) - Afghanistan and Pakistan agreed Tuesday to release hundreds of each others' prisoners in a goodwill gesture during Afghan President Hamid Karzai's visit to neighbouring Pakistan.
The decision was made during talks between Karzai and Pakistan's outgoing Prime Minister Chaudhry Shujaat on the second day of the Afghan president's visit.
Pakistan said Karzai's decision to release 400 Pakistanis languishing in decrepit Afghan jails since the fall of the Taliban almost three years ago was "a breakthrough."
"I think that there has been a breakthrough. President Hamid Karzai has said that all 400 Pakistani prisoners would be returned to Pakistan," foreign ministry spokesman Masood Khan told reporters.
"I think that's a very good development."
At the same time Pakistan ordered the release of 250 Afghans from Pakistani jails. They had been imprisoned for "consular offences," the state-run Associated Press of Pakistan reported.
Khan said they had been detained for entering Pakistan illegally.