DUSHANBE -- Tajikistan handed over 48 Afghan prisoners to Afghan authorities at the Lower Panj border checkpoint on Monday (September 30), Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported.
Most of the repatriated Afghans were serving prison terms in Tajikistan for drug trafficking, said Tajik officials.
All these convicts will complete their prison terms in Afghanistan, Saidmasud Badakhsh of the Afghan embassy in Dushanbe said, adding that 70 Afghans remain incarcerated in Tajikistan.
Earlier, in July, Tajikistan returned 80 Afghan citizens jailed in Tajikistan to Kabul.
The Afghan side has repatriated an unspecified number of Tajik citizens who were convicted of terrorism in Afghanistan, according to officials in Kabul.
Tajikistan and Afghanistan signed an agreement in 2010 on the mutual exchange of citizens convicted in each other's country.
