Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider will ask Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to hand over around 60 people wanted by Islamabad during a visit there next month, officials said Sunday.
"This issue will top the agenda," Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan Arif Ayub said. Haider's visit will be his first to Afghanistan.
The Taliban militia has not responded positively to several Pakistani requests to deport Pakistani nationals wanted for sectarian killings and other crimes, the envoy told journalists.
"The lists we have given include roughly 60 people. Most of them have killed (members of the minority) Shiite community and some policemen," Ayub said.
"We have received no replies yet," he said, adding talks with Taliban Interior Minister Mawlawi Abdur Razaq during his trip to Islamabad earlier this year and subsequent contacts were yet to bear fruit.
The ambassador added he was not optimistic about a breakthrough this time either.
A Taliban Interior Ministry official Saturday hinted the militia would not hand over the fugitives.
Pakistan was the first country to recognize the mainly Sunni Muslim Taliban regime and remains only one of three countries to do so -- KABUL (AFP)
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