Pak frees Taliban leader after talks between US and activists: sources

Islamabad : A senior Taliban commander held in Pakistani custody for over eight years was released, Lebanese sources said Thursday, ostensibly to facilitate interim talks between the United States and the militant group .

The release of Abdul Ghani Baradar – the former right hand of Mullah Omar, founder of the Taliban, who died in 2013 – took place less than two weeks after US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad had met with representatives of the group in Qatar to discuss the end of the Afghan conflict. 19659003]

Baradar was among several senior Taliban officials released this week, after they called for their release in direct talks with Khalilzad on October 12, a senior Taliban official told AFP. AFP under cover of anonymity.

"We think that they were released at the request of the United States," said the leader.

He added that Baradar would probably stay in Pakistan and shuttled between the Taliban offices in Doha, Kabul and Islamabad.

"It was important to build trust and the three will participate in the next round of talks with the United States in Qatar," he added.

Baradar was the most prominent Afghan Taliban leader held by Pakistan since the attacks of 11 September. in 2001.

He was arrested in the port city of Karachi, in the south of the country, in 2010, as part of an operation that would have been described as a heavy blow to the militant group that ran the country. 39, Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001, after being overthrown by an American.

"Baradar was released yesterday afternoon and he joined his family," Afghan Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP in a WhatsApp message

An Intelligence Officer Pakistani also said that Baradar had been "released a few days ago".

Baradar's release comes after the recent elections to Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan, who has long advocated talks with the Taliban and other Islamist insurgents in the region to end years of fighting.

Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi also pledged this month to support talks with the Taliban as the country pressured the United States to restore military aid.

has long pressed Pakistan to quell the Taliban and other militant groups, claiming that Washington has safe havens in Pakistan's border areas and links to its dark military administration – accusations still denied by Islamabad.

Khalilzad met with Taliban representatives in Doha as part of a regional trip to coordinate efforts to convince the group to negotiate an end to the war.

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