Pak to free more Taleban prisoners

No decision taken on release of Baradar

ISLAMABAD, Dec 1, (AFP): Pakistan on Friday agreed to release another batch of Taleban prisoners in a bid to facilitate peace talks between insurgents and the Afghan government, a joint foreign ministry statement said.

The announcement came after talks in Islamabad between visiting Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul and his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar. The number of prisoners to be released was not specified but is not thought to include the Taleban’s former deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was captured in 2010.

A senior Pakistani security official earlier told AFP that “no decision” had been taken on his release.

The joint statement said both sides agreed the “release of more prisoners, facilitating contacts and urging the Taleban to renounce ties to Al-Qaeda”.

It was the second high-level delegation to visit Pakistan this month to press for the release of Taleban prisoners in a bid to kickstart peace efforts. Talks two weeks ago between Pakistan and Afghanistan’s High Peace Council resulted in the release of nine Taleban.

Afghan officials believe senior Taleban leaders held in Pakistan could help bring militants to the negotiating table, if released from jail, to end over a decade of war ahead of the 2014 pull-out of US-led NATO troops.

“I hope that we will continue to implement other concrete measures in a timely manner and push the peace process forward... so that all those who can help advance the peace process go free,” Rassoul told reporters after talks with his Pakistani counterpart. An Afghan official had told AFP ahead of the meetings that Rassoul would ask for the release of further Taleban detainees, including Baradar.

But a senior Pakistani security official told AFP that “no decision” had so far been taken on whether to release him.

“We have to ascertain how important he can be. Pakistan believes Baradar may not be enjoying the same clout he used to have before being arrested in Karachi two years ago,” the official said. The Taleban, leading an 11-year insurgency since the 2001 US-led invasion, has welcomed the releases, but refuses to negotiate directly with Kabul, calling the government of President Hamid Karzai a US puppet.

Preliminary contacts between the US and the Taleban in Doha were broken off in March when the militants failed to secure the release of five of their comrades held at the Guantanamo Bay prison on the US base in Cuba.