Pakistan releases 13 Afghan Taliban figures

Pakistan has freed 13 Afghan Taliban figures as a goodwill gesture to the visiting Afghan peace envoy, Salahuddin Rabbani, sources said on Thursday. Anwar Haq Mujahid, a famous Taliban leader, and eight more operatives were released on Thursdayand four were freed days before the visit to Islamabad by Afghan Peace Council, they said. Afghan delegation had submitted a list of senior Taliban leaders to Pakistan that included four senior Afghan Taliban leaders. Mujahid was in the list and Islamabad, in a first phase, released him and promised to consider the release of others, the sources said. Mujahid, the son of a known Jehadi leader in eastern Afghanistan, Maulvi Younas Khalis, who died in 2006, had assumed leadership of Hizb-e-Islami party. He was the Taliban commander when he was arrested in Pakistan in 2009. Sources said that the freed Taliban will not be handed over to the Afghan government and can rejoin family members, go to Afghanistan or any other country, the sources said. They will not be arrested under an agreement between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States. Afghan government had mentioned nearly 40 Afghan Taliban figures in a list handed over to Pakistan. Pakistan and Afghan Peace Council have also agreed to form a small bilateral group to establish contact with Taliban, the source said. The group will chalk out a mechanism for contacts with Taliban.