Pakistan to hand over captured Taliban leaders to Kabul

KABUL - Pakistan was ready to hand over captured Taliban leaders to Kabul after a high-level meeting between security officials of the two neighbours, the Afghan presidential palace said Thursday.

Pakistani security forces detained at least three Taliban officials, including Mullah Abdul Ghani, known as Mullah Baradar, in separate raids earlier this month.

“The government of Pakistan has accepted the request from Afghanistan to extradite Mullah Baradar and other Taliban in its custody,” the Afghan presidential palace said in a statement.

The authorities in Islamabad “announced their readiness to hand over the prisoners, accused of criminal acts, based on an agreement between the two countries,” it said, but did not give any date for the extradition.

Mohammad Hanif Atmar, Afghan interior minister, who was in Islamabad Wednesday to discuss the handover with his Pakistani counterpart Rehman Malik, told a security meeting chaired by

President Hamid Karzai that tentative agreement was reached on anti-terrorism and anti-drug questions, border security and the handing over of the detainees.

The Afghan government has long accused some elements inside Pakistan, including its Inter-Services Intelligence, of covertly supporting the Taliban, whose leadership, Kabul claims, is based in Quetta city.

Malik had earlier said that his country would not transfer Mullah Baradar to US authorities, but hinted that if there was a formal request from Afghanistan, Islamabad would “look into it.”

Mullah Baradar was second in command of the Taliban movement after its supreme chief Mullah Omar. He was in charge of the Taliban’s military operations inside Afghanistan.

The other two Taliban officials also arrested inside Pakistan were Mullah Abdul Salam and Mullah Mir Mohammad, Taliban’s shadow governors for the northern provinces of Kunduz and Baghlan respectively.