Pakistan releasing Mullah Baradar today

The News 21 Sept 2013 ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will release today (Saturday) its most senior Afghan Taliban detainee, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a one-time military chief often described as the insurgents’ former second-in-command. “In order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process, the detained Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, would be released tomorrow,” Foreign Office stated on Friday. “Pakistan is the most desirous country for restoratio of peace in Afghanistan,” it added. The Afghan government has long demanded that Islamabad free Baradar, whose arrest in January 2010 saw Pakistan accused of sabotaging initiatives to bring peace in war-torn Afghanistan. Sartaj Aziz, the adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs, had told AFP on Monday that Baradar “will be released this week, possibly in a day or two”.His release would bring to 34 the number of Taliban detainees that Pakistan has freed since last year, in what Afghan officials hope will encourage peace talks with Taliban insurgents. Sartaj Aziz had said that Baradar would not be handed over to Kabul. “It is at his (Baradar’s) discretion whether he chooses to live here or anywhere of his own choice,” Aziz said.Baradar was arrested from Karachi, reportedly in a secret raid by CIA and Pakistani agents, an operation that was described as a huge blow to the Taliban. At the time of his arrest Baradar was reported to have been the Taliban’s second-in-command. There has been little evidence that the release of Taliban detainees has had a positive effect on the stalled peace negotiations, however, and several prisoners are understood to have returned to the battlefield. Meanwhile, the Afghan government welcomed Pakistan’s announcement that Taliban prisoner Abdul Ghani Baradar would be freed shortly, saying the move would help peace efforts after 12 years of war. “We welcome that this step is being taken,” Aimal Faizi, spokesman for Afghan President Hamid Karzai said. “We believe this will help the Afghan peace process. This is something we have been calling for a long time. It was on the agenda when the president visited Pakistan, so we are pleased.”