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PESHAWAR: An important Afghan Taliban leader Anwarul Haq Mujahid has reached home after being released along with 12 others by Pakistani authorities as a gesture of goodwill to Afghanistan’s High Peace Council that recently visited Islamabad.Taliban sources said Anwarul Haq Mujahid’s family in Pakistan has confirmed that he was reunited with it Thursday evening after his release. They didn’t say where in Pakistan the family was living.
The 46-year old Anwarul Haq Mujahid is the son of late mujahideen leader Maulvi Yunis Khalis, who led the Hezb-e-Islami (Khalis) to which Mulla Mohammad Omar belonged before launching his Taliban movement. Maulvi Yunis Khalis also had close ties with Osama bin Laden. Many members of his Hezb-i-Islami (Khalis) are now part of President Hamid Karzai’s government.
Anwarul Haq Mujahid, who founded the Tora Bora Mahaz to fight the US-led Nato forces and later merged it with the mainstream Taliban movement, was arrested in Peshawar in May 2009. He was serving as the Taliban shadow governor of Paktia province at the time of his arrest.
The Pakistan government has yet to provide the names of the released prisoners. However, Taliban sources said 13 of their men had been freed or were in the process of being released. They said seven Taliban prisoners were shifted from a detention centre in Rawalpindi to Karachi and released. They added that six Taliban prisoners, including Anwarul Haq Mujahid, were also freed from the same detention centre in Rawalpindi and shifted to Peshawar. The sources said Anwarul Haq Mujahid was allowed to go home but the other five were brought to the Central Prison Peshawar, charged under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and would hopefully be freed in a few days through a legal process.
According to Taliban sources, around 32 important Taliban prisoners were kept at the same detention centre run by Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency in Rawalpindi and 13 of them have now been moved from there for release. They said it was possible more Taliban prisoners out of this group would be freed in the near future. The group includes the Taliban’s former deputy leader Mulla Abdul Ghani Biradar, their one-legged justice minister Mulla Nooruddin Turabi and Taliban head Mulla Mohammad Omar’s one-time secretary Abdul Ahad Jehangirwal. The elderly Turabi has been in prison for more than eight years and is stated to be in poor health. There were high expectations that his name would be in the list of Taliban prisoners to be freed.
Taliban sources said their seven men freed in Karachi included former Baghlan province governors Mulla Abdul Salam and Rahmatullah, commonly known as Mulla Mohammad, former Nangarhar province governor Mir Ahmad Gul aka Mir Sahib, and Taliban shadow governor for Kabul province Mohammad Daud Jalali. The names of Mulla Matiullah, Abdul Haleem and Mohammad Karim were also mentioned among the freed Taliban prisoners, but they were low-ranked and largely unknown.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban for the first time on Friday formally welcomed the release of the prisoners and termed it a positive step by the Pakistan government. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid hoped the remaining Taliban prisoners too would be released. Arguing that the Taliban detained by the Pakistani authorities had committed no crime in the country, he said officials of the Taliban-run Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan usually come to Pakistan for medical treatment and other needs. He pointed out that Afghan refugees have been living in Pakistan for the last three decades and moving across the Pak-Afghan border frequently.
Taliban sources said around 100 of their men were imprisoned in Pakistan before the recent release of the 13 Taliban prisoners. They said 32 of them were known and held important positions in the Taliban movement in the past or at present and were, therefore, kept in custody by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Rawalpindi. They said several Taliban members were missing and could have possibly been lumped together with al-Qaeda or Pakistani Taliban prisoners and detained in secret prisons in Pakistan, Afghanistan or elsewhere.
According to Taliban sources, the condition for their 32 men held in Rawalpindi had improved in recent months and they were allowed to phone their families and receive visitors. The sources said these Taliban prisoners had been told some months ago that they were going to be freed. “We were expecting their release on the occasion of Eidul Azha, but it didn’t happen. Finally, orders for their release were given when the Afghan High Peace Council delegation headed by Salahuddin Rabbani reached Pakistan,” a senior Taliban official said.
The 46-year old Anwarul Haq Mujahid is the son of late mujahideen leader Maulvi Yunis Khalis, who led the Hezb-e-Islami (Khalis) to which Mulla Mohammad Omar belonged before launching his Taliban movement. Maulvi Yunis Khalis also had close ties with Osama bin Laden. Many members of his Hezb-i-Islami (Khalis) are now part of President Hamid Karzai’s government.
Anwarul Haq Mujahid, who founded the Tora Bora Mahaz to fight the US-led Nato forces and later merged it with the mainstream Taliban movement, was arrested in Peshawar in May 2009. He was serving as the Taliban shadow governor of Paktia province at the time of his arrest.
The Pakistan government has yet to provide the names of the released prisoners. However, Taliban sources said 13 of their men had been freed or were in the process of being released. They said seven Taliban prisoners were shifted from a detention centre in Rawalpindi to Karachi and released. They added that six Taliban prisoners, including Anwarul Haq Mujahid, were also freed from the same detention centre in Rawalpindi and shifted to Peshawar. The sources said Anwarul Haq Mujahid was allowed to go home but the other five were brought to the Central Prison Peshawar, charged under the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) and would hopefully be freed in a few days through a legal process.
According to Taliban sources, around 32 important Taliban prisoners were kept at the same detention centre run by Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency in Rawalpindi and 13 of them have now been moved from there for release. They said it was possible more Taliban prisoners out of this group would be freed in the near future. The group includes the Taliban’s former deputy leader Mulla Abdul Ghani Biradar, their one-legged justice minister Mulla Nooruddin Turabi and Taliban head Mulla Mohammad Omar’s one-time secretary Abdul Ahad Jehangirwal. The elderly Turabi has been in prison for more than eight years and is stated to be in poor health. There were high expectations that his name would be in the list of Taliban prisoners to be freed.
Taliban sources said their seven men freed in Karachi included former Baghlan province governors Mulla Abdul Salam and Rahmatullah, commonly known as Mulla Mohammad, former Nangarhar province governor Mir Ahmad Gul aka Mir Sahib, and Taliban shadow governor for Kabul province Mohammad Daud Jalali. The names of Mulla Matiullah, Abdul Haleem and Mohammad Karim were also mentioned among the freed Taliban prisoners, but they were low-ranked and largely unknown.
Meanwhile, the Afghan Taliban for the first time on Friday formally welcomed the release of the prisoners and termed it a positive step by the Pakistan government. Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid hoped the remaining Taliban prisoners too would be released. Arguing that the Taliban detained by the Pakistani authorities had committed no crime in the country, he said officials of the Taliban-run Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan usually come to Pakistan for medical treatment and other needs. He pointed out that Afghan refugees have been living in Pakistan for the last three decades and moving across the Pak-Afghan border frequently.
Taliban sources said around 100 of their men were imprisoned in Pakistan before the recent release of the 13 Taliban prisoners. They said 32 of them were known and held important positions in the Taliban movement in the past or at present and were, therefore, kept in custody by the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) in Rawalpindi. They said several Taliban members were missing and could have possibly been lumped together with al-Qaeda or Pakistani Taliban prisoners and detained in secret prisons in Pakistan, Afghanistan or elsewhere.
According to Taliban sources, the condition for their 32 men held in Rawalpindi had improved in recent months and they were allowed to phone their families and receive visitors. The sources said these Taliban prisoners had been told some months ago that they were going to be freed. “We were expecting their release on the occasion of Eidul Azha, but it didn’t happen. Finally, orders for their release were given when the Afghan High Peace Council delegation headed by Salahuddin Rabbani reached Pakistan,” a senior Taliban official said.
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