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Pakistan releases top Afghan Taliban prisoner
Pakistan released its highest-ranking Afghan Taliban prisoner on Saturday in an effort to jump-start Afghanistan's struggling peace process, Pakistani officials said, but some doubt he will make much of a difference
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akistan released its highest-ranking Afghan Taliban prisoner on Saturday in an effort to jump-start Afghanistan's struggling peace process, Pakistani officials said, but some doubt he will make much of a difference.
The Afghan government has long demanded that Pakistan free Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's former deputy leader who was arrested in a joint raid with the CIA in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010.
The United States is also keen for the Afghan government to strike a peace deal with the Taliban before it withdraws most of its combat troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. But the U.S. pressured Pakistan not to release Baradar because of concerns he would return to the battlefield, officials said.
Baradar was released Saturday morning, said Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry without providing further details, including where the prisoner was held.
Baradar will remain in Pakistan after his release and will be provided with tight security, said Pakistani intelligence and security officials, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media. He will be free to meet with anyone he chooses, they said.
Pakistan's Foreign Ministry announced earlier that Baradar would be released Saturday "to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process."
Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, a member of the council tasked by the Afghan government to negotiate with the Taliban, praised Baradar's release, saying "we are very much hopeful that Mullah Baradar can play an important role in the peace process."
Baradar, who is around 50 years old, was one of the founding members of the Taliban along with the group's leader Mullah Omar. He served as a senior military leader and defense minister after the Taliban seized control of Afghanistan in 1996.
