Pakistan has reportedly agreed to release several militants and theTehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) will declare a ceasefire in return.
The development comes amid reports of a positive development in talksbetween the Pakistani government and Afghanistan-based Pakistani Taliban.
Sources say that Pakistan has reportedly agreed to free several prisonersin the first phase that would encourage the Taliban militants to declare acountry-wide ceasefire.
“The prisoners were supposed to be freed on November 1 this year but thenthere were some technical issues that delayed the release process. Thenthey were required to be freed on November 4 but again it didn’t happen dueto some reasons,” says one of the two sources privy to the negotiations.
The source said some of the prisoners including top Taliban leaders inSwat, Mehmood Khan and Muslim Khan, were taken to Afghanistan for theirlikely release. Muslim Khan was a spokesman for the Swat Taliban. He(Muslim Khan) and Mehmood Khan as well as some senior Taliban leaders wereinvited to a meeting by the security officials in 2009 in Swat but thenthey were returned.
There were also reports that Maulvi Omar, a former spokesman for the TTP,was in the first batch of prisoners supposed to be freed as a goodwillgesture.
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Neither the Pakistani authorities nor the Taliban spokesman MohammadKhurasani officially confirmed this development. However, Taliban sourcessaid that some of the prisoners phoned their family members for the firsttime in 13 years and informed them about their safety.
Sources say the Pakistani Taliban had initially demanded release of fivesenior militant leaders so that they start trusting the Pakistan governmentand it’s seriousness in talks, but “Pakistani authorities themselvesoffered to [release] 102 prisoners, including the five important leaders sothat the peace process could yield results.”
According to sources, all prisoners had been collected from differentprisons in Pakistan and taken to Miransha, the headquarters of NorthWaziristan, for their likely shifting to Khost in Afghanistan and handingover to the Afghan Taliban for their subsequent release.
Sources say, “None of the prisoners had been shifted to Afghanistan yet.They are still in Miranshah but can be taken any time across the border inAfghanistan.” Insiders say most of the hurdles to the peace process hadbeen removed and the two sides had agreed on a future agenda.
