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THE STANS
Pakistan to release senior Afghan Taliban prisoner
by Staff Writers
Islamabad (AFP) Sept 10, 2013


Pakistan politicians call for peace talks with Taliban
Islamabad (AFP) Sept 09, 2013 - Pakistani politicians on Monday backed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's calls to begin peace talks with the Taliban aimed at ending more than a decade of bloodshed.

Representatives from the main coalition and opposition parties who had met for an All Parties Conference (APC) asked the government to "initiate the dialogue" with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP).

"We repose full confidence in (the) efforts of the Prime Minister in this behalf and call upon the federal government to initiate the dialogue with all stakeholders," said a resolution passed by the representatives.

The move came a month after Sharif called for talks with the TTP during his first televised address to the nation since taking office after winning elections in May.

Pakistan's army and intelligence chiefs also attended the conference, as did secular parties that made up the previous government which backed military operations against the insurgents.

Shahidullah Shahid, the main spokesman for the Tehreek-e-Taliban, welcomed the move and said that a Taliban Shura (Council) would meet in next two days to discuss the issue.

"We welcome it, the government has for the first time shown seriousness in holding peace talks," Shahid told AFP by telephone from an undisclosed location.

"Our shura will meet in next two days and will discuss this offer. We will chalk out a strategy for the talks and will later announce it."

Pakistan has initiated peace talks with the militants in the past.

But previous deals have failed and come under sharp criticism both domestically and by the United States for allowing the extremists space to regroup before launching a new wave of attacks.

The parties also expressed their dissatisfaction over continued drone strikes by the US and asked the government to raise the issue internationally.

"The Federal Government should consider the possibility of taking the drone issue to the United Nations as drone attacks are a violation of International Law," said the resolution.

The Pakistani government considers the strikes by unmanned US aircraft as a violation of its sovereignty, but Washington views them as a vital tool in the fight against Al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Pakistan says more than 40,000 people have been killed in the country as a result of bomb and suicide attacks carried out by the Taliban and Al-Qaeda-led militants who oppose Islamabad's alliance with the US and NATO in the war on terror.

Pakistan is to release its most senior Afghan Taliban detainee, Abdul Ghani Baradar, a former military chief often described as the insurgents' ex-second in command, officials said Tuesday.

The Afghan government has long demanded that Islamabad free Baradar, whose arrest in January 2010 saw Pakistan accused of sabotaging initiatives to bring peace in war-torn Afghanistan.

His release would bring to 34 the number of Taliban detainees that Pakistan has released since last year, in what Afghan officials hope will encourage peace talks with the insurgents.

There has been little evidence, however, that the releases have had a positive effect on stalled talks, and Baradar's influence has been debated after years away from the battlefield.

"Pakistan has decided in principle to release Mullah Baradar," Sartaj Aziz, advisor to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs, told AFP.

Aziz said Baradar would not be handed over to the government in Afghanistan, but was "likely to be released this month".

Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry confirmed to AFP that the decision had been taken to release Baradar "at an appropriate time".

The announcement came two weeks after Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Pakistan for talks with new Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, at which Baradar's release was again requested.

A member of Afghanistan's High Peace Council, set up to coordinate peace efforts, welcomed the prospective release but called on Pakistan to coordinate his release with them.

"We hope that they work in coordination with Afghanistan's High Peace Council," said Mohammad Ismail Qasemyar.

Karzai at the end of August asked Pakistan to help open direct dialogue between his government and the Taliban. He was infuriated by the opening in June of a Taliban office in Qatar, considered a precursor towards talks with US officials.

Elements of the Pakistani state are widely accused of funding, controlling and sheltering the Taliban. Islamabad says publicly it will do anything to stop the fighting in Afghanistan.

But analysts doubt Pakistan has the influence to force the Taliban to the negotiating table and the insurgents have publicly refused all contact with Karzai's government.

Karzai's office said it would respond later to Baradar's prospective release, and Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told AFP the militia was assessing the situation.

Afghan officials believe prisoner releases can encourage former detainees to talk to the Kabul government, although several prisoners are understood to have returned to the battlefield.

Born in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan, Baradar fought in the war -- covertly backed by the United States and Pakistan -- to expel Soviet troops from Afghanistan in the 1980s.

When the Taliban rose to power in 1996, Baradar's friendship with supreme leader Mullah Omar made him deputy defence minister.

After the Taliban government was toppled by the US-led invasion in 2001, hundreds of Taliban hardliners are believed to have fled over the border to Pakistan.

Although little is known about Baradar's more recent activity, Interpol has said that he had been a member of the Taliban's so-called Quetta Shura leadership since May 2007.

He was arrested in Pakistan's southern port city of Karachi, reportedly in a secret raid by CIA and Pakistani agents, an operation that was described as a huge blow to the group.

At the time, Baradar was reported to have been second or third-in-command of the Quetta Shura.

The New York Times -- which broke the story of Baradar's arrest -- said the commander was a close associate of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before the September 11 attacks.

In early 2010, the Afghan government and the former UN envoy to Afghanistan said his detention had adversely affected efforts to talk to the insurgents.

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