Trust-building?: Taliban confirm, military denies prisoners swap

Officials say six militants released in exchange for two paramilitary troops.

DERA ISMAIL KHAN/ ISLAMABAD:

The Pakistani military and Taliban militants exchanged prisoners on Wednesday as a confidence building measure ahead of possible peace talks, The Associated Press reported quoting intelligence officials.

The military, however, denied the exchange which reportedly included six militants of the outlawed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and two paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers.

The swap occurred in the Shawal area of South Waziristan Agency, the home of TTP chief Hakimullah Mehsud, according to the AP. The militants were subsequently taken to neighbouring North Waziristan Agency.

Some intelligence officials also confirmed the exchange to The Express Tribune. They identified the freed Taliban as Sohail Khan, Ismail Khan, Ayaza, Prizada, Yakhya and Farman. They were arrested during the 2009 military operation, codenamed Rah-e-Nejat, in the Mehsud area of South Waziristan. They were incarcerated in Bannu and Wana jails.



In return for the six militants, the Taliban handed over two FC troops, the intelligence officials said without disclosing their names. The freed paramilitary troops were kidnapped by the Taliban from Balochistan near the South Waziristan border.

It wasn’t immediately known whether the reported exchange was negotiated through a jirga or direct talks with the TTP.

The development came a day after Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan told a news briefing in Islamabad that the government has finalized the framework for talks with homegrown militants – a move endorsed by all major political parties at an all parties conference on Monday.

The military denied the report as ‘incorrect.’  “Pakistan’s military rejects the news of any prisoners swap with the Taliban as reported by a foreign news agency,” military spokesman Maj-Gen Aslam Bajwa said in a text message to the media persons.

Notwithstanding the military’s denial, a senior TTP commander claimed that the freed militants belonged to the ‘Khan Said faction’ of the TTP which is based in South Waziristan Agency. “Talks had been ongoing for prisoner swap for a long time and both sides finally reached an agreement,” the TTP commander, Ehsanullah Ehsan, who was formerly the chief spokesperson of the group, told The Express Tribune by phone from an undisclosed location.

Independent confirmation of the claims is not possible as the area controlled by the military and partly infested by militants is not accessible to the media.

Ehsan, who is also member of the TTP Political Commission, told The Express Tribune that the Central Shura of the group would meet soon to discuss a strategy for the talks with the government. He denied the Shura has already met and formed a committee for talks as reported by a section of the media on Tuesday.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 12^th, 2013.