DUSHANBE -- Tajikistan has turned over to Kabul 48 Afghan citizens who were serving prison terms in the Central Asian nation.
Tajik officials said the majority of those who were handed over to Afghanistan at the Lower Pang border checkpoint on September 30 were serving terms in Tajik prisons for illegal drug trafficking.
Saidmasud Badakhsh of the Afghan Embassy in Dushanbe told RFE/RL that all of the convicts handed to Kabul will serve out their prison terms in penitentiaries in Afghanistan.
Badakhsh added that 70 Afghan nationals remain in Tajik prisons.
Afghan officials said earlier that Kabul repatriated "several Tajik citizens" sentenced in Afghanistan to prison terms on terrorism charges. The exact number was not specified.
Earlier, in July, Tajikistan returned 80 Afghan citizens jailed in Tajikistan to Kabul.
In 2010, Tajikistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement on the mutual exchange of their citizens convicted in the other country.
Tajikistan Repatriates Dozens Of Convicted Afghan Citizens To Kabul
All of the convicts handed to Kabul are supposed to serve out their prison terms in penitentiaries in Afghanistan.