Negotiations have reached a "crucial stage" for the surrender of deposed Taliban leader Mullah Mo-hammad Omar, with a resolution expected within two days, an Afghan intelligence official said yesterday.
"We have received positive response from those tribal chieftains who are sheltering Omar and his associates in Baghran," Nusrat Ullah, a senior intelligence official in the southern city of Kandahar, said by satellite telephone.
Omar has been told that if he does not surrender by tomorrow, the Baghran area north of Kandahar where he is believed to be hiding may face American-led airstrikes.
"A breakthrough in this regard is expected soon," Ullah said.
A team of prominent anti-Taliban leaders, headed by Helmand province Governor Sher Mohammed, are negotiating final terms, Ullah said. The talks began Monday.
Kandahar intelligence chief Haji Gulali and Governor Gul Agha are in touch with the negotiating team, Ullah said.
"Mullah Omar is [the] murderer of thousands of Afghan people, and after his arrest, he would be handed over to the Kabul administration for a trial under under existing laws," Ullah said.
In Kabul yesterday, some 320 Taliban prisoners were released by Afghanistan's new interim government after spending up to five years or more locked away by Northern Alliance groups.
Security Ministry officials called it a gesture of national reconciliation and said more releases would follow. It was not known if the prisoners included al-Qaeda fighters.
"We are very pleased with the government," said Abdul Shukur, one of the newly freed prisoners from different parts of the country who were dropped off in Kabul, where they boarded chartered buses to their villages.
"God willing, I'm on my way home to see my family," Shukur said.
Most of the Afghan nationals appeared to be in good health. Some had spent more than five years in detention. Others were rounded up in October and November as the Northern Alliance pushed toward Kabul.
The men were transported to Kabul on Wednesday. They were handed over to village chiefs and tribal elders who came to pledge support to Prime Minister Hamid Karzai's new government and to seek the men's release.
Prisoners ranged in age from their late teens to their 50s. Many carried luggage.
In Islamabad, Pakistan, former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef has been detained by Pakistani security officials yesterday, his nephew said.
RSS