The Taliban on Thursday confirmed their long time deputy supreme leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar has been released in Pakistan after nine years in detention.
No deal or connection was involved in Mullah Baradar’s release from prison in Pakistan, the Taliban said in a statement attributed to their spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid. “Mullah Baradar is in good health.”
Pajhwok Afghan News had earlier quoted a source close to the Taliban as saying Mullah Baradar has been shifted to a military guesthouse in Karachi.
One of the founders of the Taliban movement, Mullah Baradar was arrested by Pakistani and US forces in 2010 in Karachi. At the time, he was the deputy into the Taliban.
The development comes following talks between American diplomats and Taliban’s representatives in Qatar earlier this month on finding a negotiated settlement to the decades old Afghan conflict.
