ISLAMABAD:
Contrasting statements emerged from the government over the release of
Taliban prisoners on Thursday as the Prime Minister’s House denied
ordering any such move, while the Interior Ministry confirmed the
release of 19 non-combatant detainees.
The Interior
Ministry spokesman said 19 non fighting Taliban, belonging to the Mehsud
tribe, had been released from different jails of the country. The
spokesman said three Taliban were freed on March 21, five on March 25
and 11 were released on March 28.
The spokesman said they
were arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorist activities on
intelligence reports. “This is a mutual decision of the government and
armed forces that innocent people who were not involved in terrorist
activities would be released after investigation,” the spokesman said.
Earlier,
in the day, the Prime Minister’s House denied the release of the
Taliban prisoners. In a statement, the PM House said no authorisation
had been given from the prime minister in this regard. It said the
release of some prisoners involved in petty crimes by the political
administration had been wrongly termed as release of Taliban prisoners.
Mushtaq
Yusufzai adds from Peshawar: Official sources on Thursday said that the
government had freed 16 low-level suspected militants belonging to the
Mehsud tribe in the militancy-affected South Waziristan Agency.
Senior
government officials said the men had been arrested by the
law-enforcement agencies on suspicion during raids in Wana and Tiarza
subdivision two years ago.The news was flashed by the local TV channels
and was widely covered by the national and international media.
It
generated a controversy after Political Agent South Waziristan Islam
Zeb Khan reportedly told some journalists that they had released 16
militants. However, he backtracked on his statement when this
correspondent approached him on the phone.
“What the media
has reported is not true. The security forces had taken these people
into custody during search operations in South Waziristan but the
security agencies after interrogation declared them white, meaning they
were innocent. They handed them over to the political administration and
thus we freed them after fulfilling all the security procedures,”
Political Agent Islam Zeb Khan explained.
He argued that
their release was not linked to demands of the Taliban militants, who
had been asking the government to free their non-combatant prisoners.A
senior government official said on condition of anonymity that these men
were taken into custody two years ago on suspicion of having links with
the militants.
He said the suspected militants were
brought to the Zari Noor Army Camp in Wana, the headquarters of South
Waziristan, and handed over to the political administration.“Actually,
the statement of the political agent created confusion in the media as
he was not aware of the situation. It was decided by the government and
Taliban negotiation committees that all the non-combatant prisoners
should be released. It is a set process that the military hands over
people to the political administration for release,” he maintained.
Some
reports said that tribal cleric and Jamiat Ulema-e-Islami-Fazl (JUI-F)
Senator from South Waziristan Maulana Saleh Shah played a role in the
release of the Mehsud tribesmen. When contacted, Senator Saleh Shah said
he had called the political agent to argue that there was no
justification in holding the suspects in custody after the military had
declared them innocent.
“Some people informed me about
this issue. I contacted the political agent to ask him to release these
people on my guarantee. All of them were Mehsud tribesmen and had
nothing to do with the militants,” Saleh Shah told this correspondent on
phone from Islamabad.
Some of the suspected militants
freed were identified as Abdullah Jan Mehsud, Mir Jan Mehsud, Samad
Khan, Bacha Gul, Abdul Aziz, Noor Zada, Saddam Hussain, Ziauddin Khan,
Sherpao, Raza Ali and Iqbal Khan.
The Pakistani Taliban
said they had heard about the release of the 16 Mehsud men through the
media but they were not in a position to confirm if their names were
included in the 800-member civilian prisoners’ list given to the
government.
“We came to know about their release on
Thursday evening. There was no way we could have confirmed if their
names were on the list we had sent to the government. We have convened a
meeting on Friday (today) to check it and then discuss other matters
related to the suspended peace talks,” a senior leader of the
Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) said.
Pleading anonymity,
he said though the duration of one-month ceasefire had expired on March
31, they were still abiding by it as long as the peace talks were
underway with the government.
Rustam Shah Mohmand, member
of the government negotiation committee and former chief secretary,
welcomed the step and said that hopefully it would be in favour of the
peace process.
“There was a consensus that if there was no
proof against the prisoners in jails, they should be released whether
the Taliban demanded it or not,” he told this correspondent.Rustam Shah
Mohmand said he was not aware if the names of the freed men were part of
the Taliban’s list of civilian prisoners. He said it might remove
suspicion from the minds of the militants about the government
intentions.
He said efforts were underway for the second
face-to-face meeting with the TTP political Shura members to discuss
with them an extension in the ceasefire and lifting the ban on
anti-polio campaign in the tribal areas.
