The practice is so systemic that the Taliban have a committee focused on getting their fighters out of jail. It undermines the deterrent effect of arrest and the potential of the prisoner population as a card to play in peace talks, analysts say.
The releases, which were confirmed by several sources familiar with a range of cases, also raise questions about the capacity and political will of Afghan security forces meant to be taking over from foreign troops starting next year.
US forces will begin drawing down numbers from next July and Nato hopes to meet Karzai's 2014 target for all security to be provided by Afghan police and military.
But cases including that of Ghulam Haidar, a top insurgent in the southern Taliban heartland of Kandahar, suggest that a web of complex loyalties and widespread corruption are undermining the fight against the insurgency.
Ghulam Haidar, meaning "servant of God", is a common name in Afghanistan so when Canadian forces turned one of the most dangerous men in Kandahar city over to their Afghan counterparts in March, they may not have realised who he was.
Days later he was walking free again, according to three sources who have investigated prisoner releases or have seen documents about Haidar's capture. They asked not to be named because they are not authorised to release information .
A Kabul-based source with links to Western intelligence services confirmed Haidar was a Taliban leader known to have a major role in the insurgency around the city. Yet his freedom was requested by Karzai's younger brother Ahmad Wali Karzai, head of the Kandahar provincial council.
A spokesman for the interior ministry said it had not been involved in release of any Taliban. "We have no evidence that detained Taliban were released by government officials," Zemarai Bashary said.
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