KABUL, Jan. 16 (Xinhuanet) -- The US army in Afghanistan released a group of 81 Afghans from its main base in Bagram and handed the mover to Afghan Supreme Court where they were set free Sunday.

    "It is a matter of pleasure these people are free today and joining their families on the eve of Eidul Adha," Chief Justice Mawlawi Fazul Hadi Shinwari told the former detainees on the occasion of their release.

    Eidul Adha, the most important religious festival in Islamic countries, is going to be celebrated Thursday.

    It is the first-ever large group released by the US military from the holding facilities inside Afghanistan. It already released some 100 Afghan detainees from the detention center at Guantanamo Bay over the past two years.

    Bagram, 50 km north of Kabul, has been serving as the US-led coalition troops headquarters since the collapse of Taliban regimein late 2001.

    Their release is taking place amid boosting reconciliation policy as the government expects mass surrender of the Taliban militias in near future.

    A top government official Assadullah Wafa who rules the troubled Paktia province in southeast Afghanistan said last week that a large number of Taliban would lay down their arms and join government very soon.

    Over 400 detainees on charge of having link with the Taliban and al-Qaeda, according to the US army officials, have been languishing in 22 holding facilities in Afghanistan.

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