Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani authorities have freed senior Afghan Taliban leader Ahmadullah Muti alias Mullah Nanai, Taliban sources confirmed on Monday.

It is believed that Pakistan may have taken the decision to release Mullah Nanai to encourage the Taliban to join the peace process. Taliban have so far refused to join the intra-Afghan dialogue and insist on direct talks with the United States.

In January, a 5-member Taliban political delegation from their office in Qatar held talks with Pakistani officials on the prospects for the peace talks.

A Taliban statement had later said that the Taliban political representatives have also held discussions with China, Qatar and some other countries and shared their recommendations with the top leaders.

Mullah Nanai, who had served as the Taliban Chief Justice and intelligence chief according to the Taliban sources, was arrested in Balochistan province in October 2016.

Taliban sources confirmed that Mullah Nanai has been freed by Pakistan, however, there is no official word on the Taliban leader’s release.

In September last year, Afghanistan’s National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar confirmed his country offered exchange of prisoners and wanted repatriation of five Afghan Taliban leaders detained by Pakistan including Mullah Nanai for a Pakistani Taliban leader, Mufti Khalid, who was arrested after the Taliban 2014 brutal attack on the army public school in Peshawar.

Mufti Khalid, who was using the name of Mohammad Khorasani had spoken to the media to claim the responsibility and was arrested in Afghanistan’s eastern Nangarhar province.

Two other Taliban leaders Suleman Agha, the Taliban governor for Daykund province, and Mullah Sani, also known as Samad Sani, chief of a religious school and a well-known trader, were also arrested in Balochistan days earlier of Nanai’s arrest.

In January this year, the United States had imposed curbs on six militants linked to the Taliban and the Haqqani Network including Abdul Samad Sani, who is still in custody in Pakistan.