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| Afghanistan |
| Half of freed Afghan fighters return to Taliban |
| 2013-02-23 |
| At least half the Afghan Taliban recently freed from Pakistani prisons have rejoined the insurgency, a Pakistani intelligence official says, throwing into question the value of such goodwill gestures that the Afghan government requested to restart a flagging peace process. A senior Western official who spoke on condition of anonymity so he could talk freely confirmed that "some" newly freed Taliban have returned to the battlefield. The development underscores the difficulties in reaching a political deal with the Taliban before the end of 2014, when NATO and US troops are scheduled to have completed their withdrawal from Afghanistan. Many Taliban released from the US prison at Guantanamo Bay have also gone underground. Despite some recent signs from the Taliban that they are willing to share power and want to avoid a civil war, the militants may well be playing for time until 2014. That's also when the Afghans are scheduled to elect a new president to succeed Hamid Karzai, whom the insurgents consider an American puppet. The Taliban have long refused to speak directly with Karzai or his government. They have said they will negotiate only with the United States, which has held secret talks with them in the Gulf state of Qatar. But at Karzai's insistence, the US has since sought to have the insurgents speak directly with the Afghan government. Western officials privately say that the talks have so far gone no further. At the request of the Afghan High Peace Council late last year, Pakistan freed 24 prisoners to coax a reluctant Taliban leadership to talk peace directly with Karzai's government, according to Ismail Qasemyar, a senior peace council official. The freed prisoners are all Afghan Taliban, who are battling NATO and US troops in Afghanistan. Many of these fighters use neighbouring Pakistan as a home base, particularly in winter months. The release of the prisoners appears to have backfired, however, with the intelligence official saying about half of them have returned to the Taliban. The outcome is further testing an already troubled relationship between Pakistan and Afghanistan, and drawing US complaints that Pakistan has not done enough to keep track of the freed Taliban. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #1 We should track them, with a boom belt (Hidden) Inside their belly, each. |
| Posted by: Redneck Jim 2013-02-23 19:38 |