Daily Times

Senior Pakistani and Afghan security officials on Monday held talks in Afghan capital Kabul to discuss ways for reducing tensions.

Pakistani Embassy sources in Kabul said both sides agreed to hold meetings of all groups under the Afghanistan, Pakistan Action Plan for Peace and Solidarity (APAPPS) framework in Kabul next month. The last APAPPS meeting was held in Islamabad in June.

Pakistan’s senior civil and military leaders visited Kabul on Monday amid recent tensions following harassment of diplomats in both countries.

Afghan officials said ISI chief Lt Gen Faiz Hameed and Foreign Secretary Sohail Mahmood met Afghan National Security Adviser Hamdullah Mohib and discussed formation of a technical committee to solve problems between the two countries.

Pakistani Embassy sources said the talks were held in “cordial atmosphere” and that Afghan officials assured security of the Pakistani diplomats.

“Afghan officials promised to stop harassment of the diplomats,” the Pakistani sources said.

Afghan Foreign Ministry had claimed that ISI had summoned ambassador Atif Mashal and “mistreated” him, the charges denied by Pakistan.

In another development Taliban sources said a prisoners’ exchange agreement is most likely in a couple of days that will pave the way for the release of two foreign professors – an American and an Australian – who Taliban have held hostage since 2016. In return, the US and Afghan government will set free several Taliban detainees.

The agreement will be a major confidence building measure for the resumption of the US-Taliban peace process.

US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is struggling to revive the process and his recent talks in Pakistan, Afghanistan and informal meeting with the Taliban in Qatar were mainly focused on CBMs including release of the prisoners.

Taliban have been demanding release of their prisoners including Anas Haqqani, a brother of the Taliban deputy chief Sirajud Haqqani and his uncle Mali Khan.

Anas was captured by US security officials after he visited Qatar in October 2014. He was accompanied by another Taliban leader, Hafiz Rashid, who had gone to Qatar to meet five Taliban leaders who had been freed from Guantanamo prison.

The two were arrested at Bahrain’s airport and were later handed over to authorities in Afghanistan.

In January last year, the Taliban offered to release two foreign hostages, identified as American University of Afghanistan’s professors – Kevin King from the US and Timothy Weeks from Australia – in exchange for Anas and other Taliban prisoners in Kabul. King and Weeks were kidnapped in August 2016 in Kabul. In August 2016, an Afghanistan court had awarded death sentence to Anas.

Taliban sources had earlier confirmed to Daily Times that Pakistan had been mediating for the release of the foreign professors and there had been negotiations about the agreement in Qatar.