Army taken into confidence on release of Taliban prisoners

 

ISLAMABAD: The Army has been taken into confidence on the release of Taliban prisoners, an important source attached to the talks told ‘The News’ here on Sunday.
The sources further said that all the institutions were working in line with the vision of the prime minister to ensure the success of the talks.They informed that the government had received a list of 400 Taliban prisoners. Out of these 400, the release of innocent and non-combatant prisoners had been initiated, the sources stated.

The sources denied that the government had handed over a list to the Taliban for the release of prisoners held by the outfit.They said that none of the two parties held “prisoners of war”. They elaborated that the Taliban abducted sons of Yousuf Raza Gilani and Salman Taseer, and Vice Chancellor Dr Ajmal for ransom. Likewise, the government held the wanted Taliban for creating a law and order situation. Therefore, nothing like an exchange of prisoners was under way, they clarified.

The release of non-combatant Taliban will be accompanied by the arrangement of meetings of the under arrest Taliban with the members of their families and those found innocent will be released on a case-to-case basis, the sources claimed.

It has been made clear to the Taliban that the government has no demand other than the establishment of peace and elimination of terrorism. If these demands of the government are met, the Taliban will be ensured the same rights as other peaceful citizens of the country.

The next phase of the government-Taliban talks will start within two or three days. More measures for building confidence and creating goodwill need to be taken.The decision to cease fire made by Taliban was a difficult one but they were told, “When you threw away the Kalashnikov, the prime minister closed F-16 in the garage.” With the assistance of Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif made impossible things possible despite facing opposition from institutions, Parliament, the cabinet and his own party.

It was for the first time in 12 years of war on terror that chances for peace increased, as in the initial phase of the talks, the Taliban leadership was told that the sons of important personalities should be released without ransom and they should not demand compensation from the government for killing Taliban.

The sources said that in a meeting of the talks committees of the government and Taliban, chaired by Interior Minister Nisar Ali Khan, it was decided to proceed in a cautious way for success of the next round of the negotiation process by doing away with misunderstandings.