[The News (Pak) Top Stories] The Pakistani intelligence service has set free at least two senior Afghan Taliban militants even as it helped the United States detain the Taliban's second-ranking commander in the area, The Washington Post reported.Citing unnamed US officials, the newspaper said the releases had occurred as the Pakistani Inter-Services Intelligence directorate, or ISI, worked with US intelligence operatives to capture Mulla Abdul Ghani Baradar and other insurgents.
The quiet actions by the ISI were detected by the US intelligence agencies but not publicly disclosed, the report said. The US officials declined to identify the Taliban figures, who were released because of the secrecy surrounding US monitoring of the ISI, The Post noted. But the freed captives were senior Taliban members the United States wanted in its custody, the report said.