Pakistan has decided to release the most senior Afghan Taliban prisoner it is holding and could do so as soon as this month to jumpstart the struggling peace process, a senior Pakistani official said.
The Afghan government has long demanded that Pakistan release Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban’s former deputy leader. He was arrested in a joint raid with the CIA in the Pakistani city of Karachi in 2010.
Sartaj Aziz, adviser to Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on national security and foreign affairs, on Tuesday said the government has agreed to release Baradar to help the peace process, but has not yet set a date.
“He could be released this month or very soon,” Aziz said. “It is part of confidence-building measures and we are hopeful he can play a role.”
Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman Janan Mosazai welcomed Pakistan’s decision to set Baradar free, saying “we believe his release will help the Afghan peace process.”
However, he said Baradar must be “accessible, secure and with a known address” if he stays in Pakistan.
The Afghan government has urged Pakistan in the past to release Taliban prisoners into its custody, but they have instead been set free in Pakistan.
Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, secretary of the Afghan High Peace Council, which represents Kabul in peace talks, also welcomed Baradar’s planned release.
“In the past, Abdul Ghani Baradar has been willing to help bring peace to Afghanistan. Because of that, they put him in jail,” Qasimyar said.
Pakistan has strong historical ties to the Taliban since it helped the group seize control of Afghanistan in 1996. Pakistan is widely believed to have maintained these ties and provided the insurgents sanctuary, despite official denials.
Yet there is also significant distrust between the two, and Islamabad has arrested dozens of Taliban militants in the years following the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, possibly to hold as bargaining chips.
Pakistan has released at least 33 Taliban prisoners over the past year to jumpstart peace talks between the insurgents and Kabul, but there is no sign that the releases have helped and some of the freed are believed to have returned to the fight against Kabul.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in