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Pakistan Discusses Prisoner Exchange As Blast Mars Minister's Trip
KABUL, Feb 8 (News Agencies) - Pakistani Interior Minister Moinuddin Haider's first trip to war-battered Kabul ended on a tense note Thursday as a bomb exploded near the airport and his plane nearly caught fire on the tarmac.
Officials with the ruling Taliban Islamic militia said the bomb blast occurred in a residential area about two kilometers [just over a mile] from the airport three hours before Haider was due to board his flight.
They said although the device was small and caused no casualties or serious damage, it was intended as a message to the minister from anti-Taliban opposition forces.
Later at the airport, witnesses said one of the twin engines of Haider's Beechcraft plane started spitting plumes of fire 10 meters (30 feet) long as the pilot tried to start it in vain for the third time.
The minister and his entourage scrambled out of the plane while some of those gathered nearby to see him off ran for cover.
"Maybe my destiny is to spend some more time with you," a cool-headed Haider was heard joking with his Taliban counterpart, Mulla Abdur Razaq, in the main Pakistan language of Urdu after the incident.
"God was kind to him and to all of us. It was about to explode," a Taliban foreign ministry official said.
Afghan engineers set to work on the engine as the minister waited at the rocket-scarred airport, and he eventually departed in the same plane for the Taliban's southern stronghold of Kandahar after a lengthy delay.
Haider is the first high-level Pakistani official to visit Afghanistan since Pakistani military ruler General Pervez Musharraf seized power in a coup in October 1999.
The Pakistan-based Afghan Islamic Press later reported that he arrived safely at Kandahar, where provincial Governor Mulla Mohammad Hassan and Afghan Ambassador to Pakistan Abdul Salam Zaeef met him.
Pakistan, the Taliban militia's closest ally, denies allegations from opposition forces that it provides men and weapons to the militia's war effort.
"The explosion was to make them [the Pakistani delegation] hear the bang," a Taliban official said of Thursday's blast, although there has been no claim of responsibility from the opposition.
The explosion was the fifth in the Afghan capital in recent months, and the opposition, led by forces loyal to ousted defense minister Ahmad Shah Masood, has denied any involvement.
Last year, the Pakistan embassy was targeted with explosions, but there was no major damage or casualties.
Meanwhile, Haider has promised to release thousands of Afghan prisoners held in jails in Pakistan.
"A date has not been set for this, but we hope thousands of Afghans currently in Pakistani jails will be freed," Taliban Minister for Refugee Affairs Mawlawi Abdur Raqib said.
He said Pakistan would release all Afghan prisoners except 66 in the province of Baluchistan, 326 in North West Frontier Province, three in Punjab and 15 in Sindh.
In exchange, Haider has asked the Taliban to extradite around 60 Pakistani fugitives wanted for sectarian violence in Pakistan, as well as to control the flow of refugees fleeing war and drought
Following talks with Razaq here Wednesday, Haider is expected to meet Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Mutawakel and present a letter from Musharraf to supreme Taliban leader Mulla Mohammad Omar in Kandahar.
The talks are focusing on U.N. sanctions against the Taliban, which is accused of harboring "terrorists", and the worsening humanitarian disaster from drought and war which have driven more than 150,000 Afghan refugees into Pakistan since September.
Pakistan is the militia's closest ally and one of only three countries that recognizes the Taliban as Afghanistan's legitimate rulers.
The United Nations last month imposed fresh sanctions on the Taliban for their refusal to hand over Osama bin Laden, accused of masterminding the bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
Washington has asked Pakistan to use its influence with the Taliban to secure bin Laden's extradition, but Islamabad insists it is a matter for negotiations between the United States and Afghanistan.
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