PESHAWAR/ISLAMABAD
Taliban negotiating committee member Professor Ibrahim on Monday said a list of 300 Taliban women and children prisoners has been given to Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, as Taliban spokesman Shahidullah Shahid said that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif was unaware of the number of prisoners in custody of security forces.
Briefing Jamaat-e-Islami leaders on the dialogue process, Ibrahim said the withdrawal of forces from South Waziristan Agency was a proposal and not a demand put forward by the Taliban. He added that troops should be at least withdrawn from Laddah and Makeen tehsils, if not from the entire agency.
According to him, the release of Salmaan Taseer’s and Yousaf Raza Gillani’s sons would be discussed with the Taliban. He cautioned that the release of women and children prisoners could be the biggest issue in the dialogue process.
Ibrahim said that three places were under consideration for a meeting between the government committee and Taliban Shura.
Ibrahim said they were in contact with Chaudhry Nisar. He said, “We cannot disclose the names of the three places.”
On the other hand, Rustam Shah Mohmand, a member of government committee, said no decision has been finalised for the meeting.
Meanwhile, Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah called on the Taliban to provide evidence of women and children prisoners. He said that if there were any prisoners they would be released, adding that the issue would not be allowed to become the reason for a deadlock in talks.
TALIBAN PRISONERS:
Meanwhile, TTP spokesman Shahidullah Shahid on Monday said that Defence Minister Khawaja Asif was unaware of the persons held in detention by security agencies.
In a statement issued to the media, he said that if the defence minister was unaware about the location of detention centres in the country, then how could he be informed about the number of people being held at such facilities.
Khawaja Asif earlier on Sunday had rejected a major demand of the Taliban — release of non-combatants – saying there were no women and children in the custody of security forces.
The TTP spokesman further claimed that the secret detention centres in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) and other areas of the country were an undeniable fact. He added that after passage of the Pakistan Protection Ordinance (PPO) these “illegal and inhuman” centres were given legal cover and further questioned the number of missing persons Khawaja Asif had presented in court in abidance with the law.
Shahidullah also asked about the people over whose recovery the Supreme Court had threatened to initiate contempt proceedings against the prime minister and defence minister.
He said that the government appeared to be confused over holding peace talks and wondered about the ‘forces’ who had signalled Khawaja Asif to put the dialogue process at stake.
He also said that as evidence of his claims, he had forwarded a list of non-combatants to the committee nominated by the militant organisation to mediate peace talks with the government.
The TTP spokesman also said that it was the committee’s responsibility to investigate the list and if the issue progressed any further then the names of prisoners could be presented in this regard.