Afghan Taliban welcome release of prisoners

Ask for all remaining prisoners to be released; former leaders sceptical.

ISLAMABAD:

The Afghan Taliban welcomed on Friday the release of some of their prisoners as a positive move by Pakistan, while former leaders voiced their doubts about any positive impact from the move, a day after officials confirmed the release of 13 Taliban detainees.

“We welcome this as a positive  step. It is our demand that our remaining prisoners (in Pakistan) also be freed,” Taliban spokesperson Zabihullah Mujahid said.

In a Pashto-language statement shared with The Express Tribune, Mujahid said the release of prisoners would undoubtedly increase trust between the neighbouring countries and their people.

Impact

“Pakistan will consider the release of more Afghan Taliban detainees if the release of the 13 in the first phase has a positive impact on the peace process,” an Afghan official involved in the recent Islamabad talks told The Express Tribune.   

However, some former Taliban leaders have misgivings about any positive impact on the peace process and insist that the release of Taliban from the US detention centres of Guantanamo and Bagram would be more helpful in pushing the peace process forward.

“I think the release of a few Taliban figures is a conspiracy to weaken the armed struggle in Afghanistan,” former Taliban commander Akbar Agha told The Express Tribune by phone from Kabul. Akbar Agha, who was arrested in Karachi in 2004 and then handed over to Afghanistan, is now heading his own splinter group, Jaish-ul-Muslimeen.

Another former Taliban leader, Abdul Salam Rakatey, told the Afghan media that if the Afghan government and the Americans want a real peace and reconciliation process then all senior Taliban in American-controlled prisons should be freed.

Key commander rejoins family

A key Taliban commander, Anwar Haq Mujahid, who was among the group of freed Taliban figures, has rejoined his family in Peshawar, sources in his family told The Express Tribune. The sources said that Anwar Haq, who was arrested in Peshawar in 2009, was the senior-most Taliban commander to be released by Pakistan.

Official sources say that all 13 freed Taliban were allowed to rejoin their families or go anywhere in or outside Pakistan. “They will not be arrested under the safe passage mechanism by Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States,” an Afghan official told The Express Tribune.

Mujahid said that some Taliban had crossed into Pakistan for medical treatment or other reasons. “However, they did not commit any acts that would warrant imprisonment or punishment ... Therefore, freedom was their right,” he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 17^th, 2012.