“Yes our talks finally proved successful for prisoners’ swap. We returned our valued guest to his countrymen and they released our people, including the top five commanders held in Guantanamo Bay since 2002,” a senior Taliban commander told The News on phone from somewhere in Afghanistan.
Pleading anonymity, he said talks for prisoners’ swap had been going on for the past several weeks. He didn’t mention the name of the country but said a brotherly Muslim country, having sympathies with the Taliban, played an important role in bringing together the Taliban and US officials to help exchange each others’ prisoners.
The Taliban commander said Bowe Bergdahl had mostly been held in the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan after what he termed his ‘dramatic’ kidnapping from Afghanistan’s Paktika province in June 2009.
“After the deal was finalised, Bowe was taken to Ali Sher town of Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province by the third party and delivered to Americans. We don’t know further what happened to him,” the Taliban commander said.
According to the Taliban, they had informed Bergdahl a few days ago about his likely release but he didn’t believe as before this he was once handed over to members of the Quetta Shura or council, the decision-making body of the militants, for his scheduled release in exchange for the five commanders two years ago when they started peace talks with US in Qatar.
“The talks at that time failed and he was again handed over to his captors and that’s why he didn’t trust when was told about his likely release,” he recalled.
He claimed Bergdahl has made several friends among the Taliban but his suffering began when his close friend and senior Taliban commander, Maulvi Sangeen Zadran was killed in a US drone attack in North Waziristan tribal region last year.
“He was actually kidnapped by the militants of Maulvi Sangeen and that’s why the late commander would love him and take care of him,” the Taliban commander said.
Before his release, the Taliban claimed he was given a traditional Afghan turban as a gift.
“It is war in which they kill us and we kill them but we did whatever we could to make him happy and return with good memories,” the Taliban commander said.
The Taliban commander claimed they finally got back their five prisoners including Mulla Fazal Akhund, Noorullah Noori, Abdul Haq Waseeq, Khairullah Khairkhwa and Mohammad Nabi in exchange for the US soldier.
“We initially demanded the release of these people. They arrived in Qatar and joined their families,” he said.
According to Taliban sources, Mulla Fazal Akhund, who belongs to the Kakar tribe and is from Derawad in the central Urozgan province, was the Taliban army chief at the time of his capture.
Mulla Fazal was reportedly leading his fighters in northern Afghanistan where he surrendered to Uzbek warlord General Abdur Rasheed Dostum on condition that he won’t be handed over to the US.
Gen Dostum later handed over him and several hundred other Taliban prisoners to the US reportedly after taking money from the Americans. Noorullah Noori, who hails from Ghazni province, was the governor of Balkh province, while Khairullah Khairkhwa served as Afghanistan’s interior minister during the Taliban rule and also remained the governor of Herat province.
He belongs to Spin Boldak village in Kandahar province sited near the Pakistani border town of Chaman. Abdul Haq Waseeq was the deputy Taliban intelligence chief when he was captured. He belongs to Paktia province. Similarly, Mohammad Nabi was an important military commander when the Taliban were in power. He belongs to the Haqqani network.
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