Pakistan - Afghanistan discuss swap of arrested terrorists: Afghan NSA
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ISLAMABAD: Afghanistan's top security official on Friday confirmed his country offered exchange of prisoners and wanted repatriation of five Afghan Taliban leaders detained by Pakistan.
Hanif Atmar, Afghan national security adviser, did not mention names of the Afghan Taliban leaders in a statement posted on his official Twitter account on Friday.
He, however; denied comments by Foreign Minister Khawaja Asif that Pakistan was offered to exchange Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav with a Pakistani Taliban leader involved in the 2014 attack on Army Public School in Peshawar. "[Afghan] national security adviser told me we can exchange him for the terrorist you have - Kulbhushan Jadhav," the foreign minister had said in his comments at the Asia Society forum in New York this week.
"The terrorist, who killed children in APS in Peshawar, is in Afghan custody," he had said, without mentioning name of the terrorist.
Afghanistan has offered to hand over a senior leader of the outlawed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan, Mufti Khalid, in exchange of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the former deputy to Mullah Omar.
Afghan security forces had arrested Mufti Khalid in Nangarhar, who had served as spokesman for the TTP as Mohammad Khurasani, days after the brutal APS attack that had martyred nearly 150 people, almost all students.
"The two sides also discussed sanctuaries in Pakistan and exchange of top five Taliban leaders detained in Pakistan. There was no mention or reference of India or an Indian citizen," Atmar said in his statement.