QUETTA, Aug 3: The Afghan government handed over 16 Pakistanis to Pakistani officials after getting them released from private jails in Afghanistan.

The Pakistanis had been smuggled to Afghanistan by human traffickers who sold them as slave labourers.

A human rights activist and chairman of Ansar Burney Welfare Trust, Ansar Burney, told a press conference here on Wednesday that the 16 Pakistanis were smuggled from Qambar area of Sindh and later they were sold to a private party which kept them in its private jails where the victims worked as slaves.

The Inspector General of Frontier Corps, Maj-Gen Obaidullah Khan Khuttak, also attended the press conference.

Mr Burney said that he had established contacts with the Afghan authorities with the help of FC officials and after negotiations the Afghan government agreed to get all 16 Pakistanis released.

Mr Burney said that hundreds of Pakistanis who went to Afghanistan as labourers had been made slaves and were living in miserable conditions in private jails. He said the Frontier Corps had established contracts with Afghan officials and talks were under way for their release as well.

He said that media should take up the issue and expose the people involved in human trafficking.