Media reports Tuesday said those released in Pakistan include at least two former ministers and four provincial governors of an erstwhile Taliban regime that was ousted by a US-led military invasion following Sep 11, 2001 terror attacks in America.
Ex justice minister Mullah Nooruddin Turabi and former personal bodyguard of elusive Taliban chief Mullah Mohammed Omar, Muhammad Azeem, were among the leaders released Monday, a Pakistani intelligence official said.
The intelligence official said that Azeem is an important figure who was once very close to Omar.
Pakistan media reports citing Taliban sources said Turabi was also close to Omar when the Taliban were in power.
"He belongs to Kandahar. He spent most of his time in Kandahar and Quetta when the Taliban regime was toppled by the US. He was arrested by the Pakistani security agencies from Karachi five years ago," a senior Taliban commander was quoted as saying.
Turabi is said to have lost his right leg and suffered an injury to his eye in the Afghan war against Soviet forces.
Pakistan had earlier released 18 Afghan Taliban militants in November. They were freed after US and Afghanistan insisted that it will help promote reconciliation ahead of NATO combat troops withdrawing by the end of 2014.
US and Afghanistan want to revive peace talks with the Taliban as members of the Afghan government's High Peace Council and some of its allies met Taliban representatives in a preliminary meeting near Paris last month.
Afghan peace negotiators welcomed the release and hailed the move as a significant boost in efforts to end 11 years of war in Afghanistan.
The High Peace Council, set up to conduct negotiations with the Taliban, said on Tuesday that the release was in support of the talks.
"It is a practical step in the right direction," said Ismail Qasimyar, head of international relations for the peace council.
"It shows the Pakistani authorities have opened a new chapter for positive co-operation with Afghanistan.
"Pakistan can play an important role in bringing peace to Afghanistan. We welcome this move and hope those freed will become peace messengers," he said.
Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, senior peace council member, told the Reuters news agency that Kabul hoped to transform the Afghan Taliban into a political movement.
"I think one consensus was that everybody acknowledged that nobody will win by military [means]," said Stanekzai, who was badly wounded in a 2011 Taliban suicide bombing attack.
from Afghanistan News.Net
Tuesday 1st January, 2013
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Kabul Time
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