Fifty-seven suspected Taliban militants recently repatriated from Pakistan to Afghanistan were actually civilians, an Afghan official claimed on Friday.

Pakistan said it arrested 57 Afghan-origin Taliban suspects and handed them over to Afghan authorities Last week, Asadullah Khalid, governor of the southern Kandahar province, told a press conference.

But it was found after investigation that those Taliban suspects actually were civilians, Khalid said.

Another 33 Taliban suspects were repatriated from Pakistan to Afghan on Thursday but they were yet to be identified, he said, adding "an investigation was ongoing."

Khalid also said Pakistan arrested some injured Taliban suspects in a hospital in Quetta city, about 70 km east of Kandahar province, but the suspects, whose identities were unknown, were yet to be sent back to Afghanistan.

Pakistan officials were not immediately available for comment.

Afghanistan has blamed Pakistan for its sabotage in fighting Taliban and al-Qaeda militants, while Pakistan insists it has deployed 80,000 troops along the two countries' border in order to effectively fight the militants.

Source: Xinhua