Afghanistan presses Pakistan to release Taleban detainees

Bid to help coax group into peace negotiations

the sect.

The video wishes “glad tidings” on Islamist warriors in “Islamic Maghreb” (the Sahara) and “the Islamic State in Mali”, as well as Somalia, Libya, Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Yemen and “usurped Palestine”.

He list “martyrs” in the global fight against world powers like Britain and the United States, including Osama binLaden.

“Don’t think that jihad stops with the death of imams, because imams are individuals,” he tells them. “Think how many sheikhs and men were martyred ... Did jihad stop? No. Jihad doesn’t stop until Allah wills it to be stopped.”

The video ends with footage of fighters undergoing military training, then cuts to weapons and equipment it alleges were taken as spoils from the enemy, SITE’s translation says.

Boko Haram’s favourite targets are usually local in character: Nigerian security forces, Christian worshippers or any politicians and clerics who speak out against it.

It has only claimed responsibility for one attack on a Western target – a bombing of the UN headquarters in Abuja that killed 24 people in August last year – but security analysts fear it could soon carry out more attacks like this. ISLAMABAD, Nov 30, (AP): The Afghan foreign minister pressed Pakistan on Friday to free more Taleban detainees in Islamabad’s custody in a bid to help coax the militant group into peace negotiations to end the 11-year-old war in Afghanistan, officials said.

Afghanistan’s top diplomat, Zalmay Rasoul, pushed his case in talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Hina Rabbani Khar, during a one-day visit to Islamabad. Their discussions followed Pakistan’s decision earlier this month to release nine Taleban prisoners in a move that Kabul welcomed as a positive first step and an indi- cation that Islamabad supports the stalled Afghan peace process.

The cooperation of Pakistan, which has longstanding ties to the Taleban, is seen as key to jumpstarting an Afghan peace process that has made little headway since it began several years ago, hobbled by distrust among the major players, including the United States. The Afghan and US governments accuse Islamabad of backing insurgents – an allegation Pakistan denies – and say many militant leaders are hiding in the country. With Afghan presidential elections and the withdrawal of most foreign combat troops looming in 2014, Afghanistan and its international allies are trying to push a peace process with the Taleban to bring an end to the conflict.

Afghanistan needs Pakistan’s help in reaching out to top Taleban leaders, but still insists that peace talks be led by Afghans, saying it will fight those who try to interfere.

Rasoul, the Afghan foreign minister, was expected to press Pakistan to free more Taleban prisoners during his one-day visit to Islamabad on Friday, including the militant group’s former deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, said an Afghan official who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of the talks.

It’s unclear whether Pakistan made any concrete commitments to free additional prisoners, including Baradar, who was captured in Pakistan in 2010 because he reportedly was having secret talks with the Afghans.

The Pakistani foreign minister said during a joint news conference that the release of prisoners was “discussed thoroughly, and I’m quite sure that we would all agree that we are making forward movement.”

Khar said that the two countries had “operationalized” a joint commission announced last year to address the prisoner release issue. They also agreed to hold a conference of Muslim scholars in January to speak out against terrorism.

Pakistan also shared with Afghanistan a draft of a strategic partnership agreement the two countries hope to negotiate over the next year, Khar said. Afghanistan signed a similar agreement with Pakistan’s archenemy India last year, causing consternation in Islamabad.

The Afghan foreign minister welcomed Pakistan’s efforts, saying “we want all Afghan Taleban to return in their country, join the constitutional political process there and play their part in furthering the construction and development of our nation.”

The Taleban prisoners released earlier by Pakistan, including some senior leaders, are believed to still be in the country, said the Afghan official who spoke ahead of Rasoul’s visit. Afghanistan hopes the freed militants will play a constructive role in the peace process, the official said, while acknowledging that it is too soon to know what role, if any, they will hold.

While it’s unclear whether the Taleban are interested in negotiating peace, the official maintained that there are indeed key Taleban figures who support a political process to end the violence, but that some of them are afraid to establish direct contact with the Afghan government because some of those who did in the past were killed or detained. A member of Indonesia’s Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir holds a placard in front of a portrait of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin (left), during a protest outside the Russian Embassy in Jakarta, on Nov 29. Around 200 Indonesians from the Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir rallied

outside the embassy, demanding the release of six of its leaders and accusing Moscow of planting weapons to smear them. (AFP)