DHAKA: Pakistan has agreed to release its most senior Afghan Taliban prisoner, former deputy leader Abdul Ghani Baradar, a senior government official said on Tuesday.

The Afghan government has long demanded that Islamabad free Baradar, whose arrest in 2010 saw Pakistan accused of sabotaging initiatives to bring peace in war-torn Afghanistan.

‘Pakistan has decided in principle to release Mullah Baradar,’ said Sartaj Aziz, an adviser to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs.

But Aziz said Baradar would not be handed over directly to the government in Afghanistan, reports The Straits Times.

BDST: 1817 HRS, SEPT 10, 2013
RoR/RK