Islamabad, Sep 22 (DPA) Afghan authorities Friday freed all the 104 alleged Talibans handed over to them by Pakistan, the Afghan Islamic Press agency reported.

They were released at a public ceremony in Kandahar, after having been arrested in the Pakistani province of Balochistan.

"Our investigations showed they were not Taliban but ordinary Afghans," Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid declared at the ceremony.

Kabul accuses Pakistan of harbouring Taliban militants and launching them into Afghanistan. Pakistan rejects the charge.

Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf last week appealed to the world community to help in the repatriation of some three million Afghan refugees who had fled the US-backed jihad fought in the 1980s against the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Many of them continue to stay in Pakistan's troubled border provinces.