Ex-President agog after Pakistan frees Taliban leader

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In the wake of Pakistan’s freeing Taliban’s co-founder, former President Hamid Karzai is pinning hope that Mullah Baradar’s release will usher in advancements in peace process in Afghanistan.

The former president was also applause for Pakistani government’s decision to free the militant leader from prison, saying it was a positive stride towards consolidating Afghanistan’s fragile peace and reconciliation plan.

Karzai reminisced about the efforts during his presidency for the release of senior Taliban leaders, including Mullah Baradar and asserted that the then High Peace Council Chief Salahuddin Rabbani had held a meeting with Mullah Baradar.

“The release of Mullah Baradar and other Taliban leaders is good news,” he said, hoping it would help to the maximum in painstaking endeavor to restore lasting peace and bring about unity among Afghans.

Mullah Baradar, the former right-hand man of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, was freed from Pakistani detention after more than eight years. Baradar was among several senior Taliban leaders freed this week, following talks between American diplomats and Taliban’s representatives in Qatar earlier this month on finding a negotiated settlement to the decades-old Afghan conflict. The Taliban had also demanded their release in direct talks with Khalilzad on in mid-October.

One of the founders of the Taliban movement, Mullah Baradar was arrested by Pakistani and US forces in 2010 in Karachi. At the time, he was the deputy into the Taliban.