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ISLAMABAD, Feb 7 (AFP) - Warlords in northern Afghanistan are demanding ransoms of up to 5,000 dollars for the release of Pakistanis captured while fighting with the Taliban, according to a human rights advocate.

About 3,000 Pakistanis are believed to be held in captivity by anti-Taliban forces, often with little protection from the harsh winter, and facing starvation in a land of chronic food shortages, Pakistan's Human Rights Commission said.

The extent of warlords using Pakistani prisoners as a cash-crop was difficult to establish. The number of recorded cases was not high, but the chairman of the independent commission, Afrasiab Khattack, feared many more went unreported.

"Some have been released for ransom by small-time warlords. We have three or four cases on record," he told AFP.

"It's generally from small-time local warlords who either hold some of them in small numbers, or have influence over the release of the prisoners."

The ransoms ranged from 200,000 to 300,000 Pakistani rupees (3,333 to 5,000 dollars) each, Khattak said.

"We believe there are more ransom demands but their families are not coming out and reporting it because they fear their relatives may be arrested on return to Pakistan."

The Pakistanis had joined the Taliban last October after US-led bombardments began to flush out suspected terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden and his al-Qaeda fighters, and to topple the Islamic militia which sheltered him.

The commission has begun compiling a province-by-province list of Pakistanis who went to Afghanistan to fight the Northern Alliance and the US-led forces and did not return.

It has so far determined 1,000 are missing from the North West Frontier Province "but there are far more than this of course. We believe the number is around 2,000 to 3,000," Khattak said.

He knew of about 500 Pakistani prisoners "languishing" in Sholgera, 50 kilometers (30 miles) southwest of the main northern city of Mazar-i-Sharfi.

Another 500 were believed to be held in the Panjshir Valley at Jabul Seraj, 70 kilometers (43 miles) north of Kabul.

"These are people who were arrested in the conflict by the Northern Alliance and some local warlords. But we do not say that each and everyone is held for ransom," he said.

Khattak said he had raised his concerns about the fate of the prisoners with interim Afghan Interior Minister Yunus Qanooni.

"Qanooni had promised when we talked last week in Kabul to provide a list of prisoners ... but so far we've not been able to lay our hands on a list."

The main concern of the commission was the conditions in which the prisoners were being kept.

"They are in cold areas. Our information is they do not have enough to wear and to protect themselves against the cold."

He also feared some faced starvation.

"The people who are keeping them prisoner do not have enough food themselves. We've had reports of food shortages for prisoners. Some may be starving."

Khattak described most of the Pakistani prisoners as "common peasants" who were urged to join the war against the anti-Taliban forces by pro-Taliban mullahs in Pakistan.

"After the US bombardment they were provoked by exciting speeches by mullahs, and crossed into Afghanistan. Arabs who were controlling Afghanistan at the time sent them to the north," Khattak said.

"Some of them had never seen fighting. Some are so naive and simple they came carrying swords and axes to fight the American B-52 warplanes.

"They had no idea of the nature of this war and they were totally misguided by the mullahs."

Khattak cited one example of five Pakistanis who returned from the fighting in Kunduz province, the last Taliban stronghold to fall in the north.

"They said they had given up because that morning they heard the Azhan (Islamic call to prayer) from the other side of the barricade. They said 'We realised then they were Muslims too, so we stopped fighting'." 

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