Afghan, Pakistan talks on Taliban prisoners

PAKISTAN: Afghanistan on Friday sent a second high-level delegation in weeks to Islamabad to press for the release of Taliban prisoners in a bid to kickstart peace efforts, officials said.

Talks this month between Pakistan and Afghanistan's High Peace Council resulted in the release of nine Taliban, but not the militia's former deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was captured in 2010.

Afghan officials believe senior Taliban leaders held in Pakistan could help bring militants to the negotiating table, if released from jail, to end over a decade of war ahead of the 2014 pull-out of US-led NATO troops. Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul on Friday arrived in Islamabad for one day of talks with his counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar and other Pakistani officials.

“We expect further concrete steps on the peace process and we see the recent release by Pakistan of a number of Taliban leaders as a positive first step,” said an Afghan official ahead of the talks.

“The foreign minister will ask for the release of further Taliban detainees in Pakistan and we have always asked for Mullah Baradar's release,” he added. The Taliban, leading an 11-year insurgency since being toppled by the 2001 US-led invasion, has also welcomed the releases.

AFP