Pakistan Releases Seven Afghan Taliban Detainees

Islamabad, Sept 7, IRNA – Pakistan has released seven more Afghan Taliban detainees “to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process,” Foreign Ministry said Saturday. The number of freed Taliban now has increased to 32. Pakistan started the process of releasing Afghan Taliban prisoners at the request of Afghan government last November. In order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process, Pakistan is releasing seven Taliban detainees, the Foreign Ministry said in a statement. The freed Taliban figures include key commander Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of Mulla Dadullah Akhud, the Taliban senior commander who was killed by US and British troops in southern Afghanistan in May 2007. Mansoor Dadullah was arrested by Pakistani security forces in Balochistan in February 2008. The Taliban supreme leader Mullah Omar had expelled Mansoor from the Taliban group after he had arrested some Taliban commanders to force them to confess hands in the killing if his brother. The Foreign Ministry’s list exclude Taliban second-in-command Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was arrested in Karachi in 2010. The Afghan government has been demanding his release since his arrest however Islamabad is unwilling to free him./end