KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) - About two dozen foreign aid workers traveled a dusty, war-ruined road out of Afghanistan on Saturday, expelled by the Taliban for allegedly preaching Christianity in this devoutly Muslim nation.
The expulsions came as the parents of two American women also accused of proselytizing met for a second time with their jailed daughters. They said the women, Dayna Curry and Heather Mercer, were still in good spirits as they awaited their trial.
The workers expelled Saturday were from the international aid organization SERVE and the U.S.-based International Assistance Mission. They were ordered out of the country but were not tried.
The groups' offices were shut down Friday by the Taliban, Afghanistan's hard-line rulers.
Vans carrying the expelled workers arrived in neighboring Pakistan at the end of an eight-hour trip over a war-ruined road. The workers refused to talk to reporters at the Pakistani border town of Torkham.
The latest action against relief groups comes as Taliban prepares to try Curry, Mercer and six other foreign aid workers with Shelter Now International - two Germans and four Australians - on charges of spreading Christianity. The workers were arrested nearly a month ago along with 16 Afghan staffers.
The Taliban's foreign minister, Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, said the expulsions of the International Assistance Mission and SERVE workers was the result of the Taliban's investigation of the Shelter Now case.
``The investigation will soon be finished and the trial will be soon,'' said Muttawakil, without giving a date.
The penalty for proselytizing Christianity in Afghanistan is jail and expulsion for a foreigner. For an Afghan, the penalty is death.
On Saturday the parents of Curry, 29, and Mercer, 24, visited their daughters for about 30 minutes accompanied by U.S. diplomat David Donahue.
Curry's mother, Nancy Cassell of Thompson's Station, Tenn., said her daughter was reading books and receiving letters sent to her.
Both families said the women were keeping their spirits up.
``I think right now they would just like to get home to see their families,'' said John Mercer of Vienna, Va.
The parents said they promised to return with bottled water for the women. Cassell wore a black shawl out of respect for Afghan traditions.
The families have not disclosed the two women's home towns.
The Shelter Now case began Aug. 3, when the two American women were arrested at the home of an Afghan family and accused of teaching Christianity. On Aug. 5, Taliban troops made the other arrests and seized the offices of Shelter Now International, a German-based Christian organization.
They later displayed compact discs, boxes of Bibles and other Christian literature translated into local languages they said were seized from the offices.
Muttawakil said no other aid organizations are expected to be implicated. The Taliban had earlier said the U.N. World Food Program was suspected of proselytizing.
``During the investigation we found no evidence against WFP,'' Muttawakil said.
The International Assistance Mission, which operates eye hospitals, clinics and food-related programs throughout the country, had suspected its workers might be implicated. Many of its Afghan staff had been staying at home, fearing arrest.
The 16 Afghans arrested with the Shelter Now group have not been allowed to have visitors, and their families have complained that no world attention has been given to their plight.
A senior Taliban official told The Associated Press that at least some of them would be sentenced to life in prison or death.