Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Baradar whose release President Karzai wants from Pakistan in the hopes of reviving the peace talks.
By Salman Siddiqui/Staff Reporter
The Afghan Taliban have expressed cautious optimism on the news of the release of seven Taliban prisoners held in Pakistan.
Islamabad yesterday released the seven senior members of the Taliban, a move generally believed to be helpful in pushing the peace process forward.
“For outsiders, it is difficult to know the motives of the prisoners release. It is a good step. But this is only one side of the coin. There is another side of the coin,” a highly-placed Taliban source yesterday told Gulf Times on condition of anonymity.
Among the freed group of the Afghan Taliban was a prominent commander, Mansoor Dadullah. The Pakistani foreign ministry gave the names of the others as Saeed Wali, Abdul Manan, Karim Agha, Sher Afzal, Gul Mohamed and Mohamed Zai.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai had visited Pakistan on August 26 and called for the release of senior Afghan Taliban prisoners in order to facilitate the stalled peace process which broke down in Qatar almost immediately after the militant group launched an international office in Doha.
However, it seems that the prisoners released by Pakistan were not the ones sought by the Kabul administration. In comments given to their local press, the Afghan foreign ministry termed the release “positive but small step by the Pakistani government in support of our peace efforts in Afghanistan”.
An Afghan official told Gulf Times that they were a bit disappointed with the release since almost none of them was on the list they had asked for and some were even feared to be “ghost names”.
Karzai in the past has specifically asked for the release of Taliban second-in-command Mullah Beradar, who continues to be held by Pakistan.
However, Taliban said that some of the released prisoners “had high slots” in the outfit.
In recent background interviews with Gulf Times, Taliban sources had revealed that the Afghan Taliban viewed calls for the release of their leaders held in Pakistan by President Karzai and his top aides with suspicion and termed it an attempt to create a split within their ranks.
A top Taliban source had said the call for the release of specific prisoners by the Karzai administration was an attempt to create a split within their ranks. “God willing, they will come to know that they are wrong,” he said.
In a strange twist, in recent weeks more than the Taliban, it is President Karzai, his Afghan ambassador to Pakistan and Afghan government-sponsored High Peace Council members who have been calling for the release of their enemies being allegedly detained in Pakistan.
The Taliban official further reiterated that ‘all” and not just a “specific few” of their prisoners should be released. “By releasing just a few of our people will not solve the Afghan peace process issues.”
Pakistan had also released 26 Taliban prisoners in two batches late last year, including the militants’ former justice minister, Nooruddin Turabi.
Among the current prisoners released, Mansoor Dadullah is said to be a senior Taliban commander, who took over from his brother Mullah Mansoor Dadullah after he was killed by foreign forces in Afghanistan in 2007.
He was reportedly captured from Pakistan’s restive province Balochistan a year after.
Details of other members remain sketchy. BBC Urdu reports that Gul Mohamed is in fact a member of Taliban Shura (council), while another prisoner was a former governor of Baghlan province.
