{{Pakistan has announced the release of seven Taliban prisoners in a bid to help the Afghan peace process.}}
At least one former senior militant was among the men freed “in order to further facilitate the Afghan reconciliation process”, said a foreign ministry statement.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Islamabad recently to promote peace.
Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif said at the time he wanted to help regional efforts to stabilise Afghanistan.
The foreign ministry statement named those freed on Saturday as Mansoor Dadullah, Said Wali, Abdul Manan, Karim Agha, Sher Afzal, Gul Muhammad and Muhammad Zai.
Mansoor Dadullah served as the Taliban’s military commander in four of the most violent provinces of southern Afghanistan until he was captured in February 2008 after a shootout with security forces in Pakistan’s Balochistan province.
He had succeeded his brother, Mullah Dadullah, who was killed in a joint Afghan-Nato operation in May, 2007, but was sacked by the Taliban leadership later that year for for disobeying orders.
Some 26 Taliban detainees have been freed during the past year, it added.
Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman said these latest prisoners had been released in Pakistan, not delivered into the custody of the Afghans as Kabul would prefer.
wirestory
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