Pakistan frees Afghan Taliban prisoners

Pakistani officials on Wednesday said they had released some Taliban prisoners to support Afghanistan’s reconciliation efforts.
The “positive gesture” came amid meetings between Kabul’s peace negotiator Salaluddin Rabbani and Pakistani authorities in Islamabad.
“A group of Afghan Taliban has been released and they are accessible to anyone who wants to contact them,” a Foreign Ministry official privy to the talks said.
The number of freed prisoners was said to be less than a dozen but sources told Pakistan Today that the number was at least 12.
Details about the release remain sketchy, but the officials said they belonged to the insurgency’s low and mid-tier leadership.
They said those freed did not include former Taliban deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested in Karachi in February 2010.
The sources told Pakistan Today that eight of the prisoners were released from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa jails, while four had been detained in jails in FATA.
Furthermore, some of the released men were members of the Taliban Central Shura, the sources added.
These prisoners would be airlifted to Afghanistan in a special plane, but the sources could not confirm whether they would be handed over to the Karzai government or to the Taliban leadership under Mullah Omar.
Rabbani, chairman of the Afghan Peace Council, said such moves would aide the Afghan government’s reconciliation efforts and help restore peace in Afghanistan.
The US, vying to leave Afghanistan by 2014, had earlier began peace negotiations with the Taliban in Qatar earlier this year. However, the talks broke down in March after the US failed to accept the Taliban’s demand of releasing a few top leaders of the Taliban detained in Guantanamo Bay prison facility before any concrete talks could take place.
Insiders say the US administration had advised President Obama against the move until at least the US presidential polls held earlier this month, as it could invite a public backlash.
However, with Obama having made it to the White House for an four years, the US is likely to hand over the Taliban leaders to Qatar, a move that could put the stalled peace talks with the Afghan insurgents back on track.
Also, Taliban negotiators like Tayyab Agha, who opened the Taliban political office in Doha, are still living in Qatar despite the collapse of peace negotiations, hinting the Taliban are also willing to resume talks with the US.
According to press reports, Saudi Arabia had also invited several Taliban leaders for this year’s Haj pilgrimage as part of its possible role in the Afghan peace process.