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| India-Pakistan |
| Pakistan swaps prisoners with Talibs |
| 2008-05-15 |
| Pakistani authorities and Taliban militants exchanged dozens of prisoners Wednesday, officials said in the latest breakthrough in a peace process that is stirring growing alarm in the West. Pakistan army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said tribal elders mediating in the talks Wednesday secured the release of seven security personnel, including two army officers. In return, Abbas said authorities released 30 people detained in Waziristan, a key militant stronghold overlooking the Afghan border. Abbas described the 30 only as "tribal people" and gave no further details. However, three Pakistani intelligence officials said they were suspected militants. Pakistan's new civilian government has offered to negotiate with militants who renounce violence in an attempt to halt a bloody series of suicide bombings on its cities and security forces. Western officials worry that poorly enforced peace deals will allow al-Qaida and Taliban militants to fortify their havens in the semiautonomous tribal belt on the Pakistani side of the frontier. NATO on Wednesday reported a sharp rise in attacks by insurgents in eastern Afghanistan, saying it was concerned the violence is the result of agreements between Pakistani authorities and militants. The Pakistani intelligence officials said the prisoner exchange took place in Razmak, a town in North Waziristan, after talks between tribal elders and envoys of militant chief Baitullah Mehsud. The officials said 30 militants from the North and South Waziristan regions were freed. They said Mehsud ordered the release of 12 government soldiers — five more than Abbas confirmed. It was not immediately possible to reconcile the varying accounts. Two of the officials said the militants were flown in from Dera Ismail Khan, a town close to the lawless tribal belt. The third official, based in South Waziristan, said the soldiers were flown in the opposite direction. The three intelligence officials asked for anonymity due to their work's sensitive nature. Pakistani officials have said an agreement with Mehsud and other Taliban chiefs along the border will include commitments to halt terrorist attacks in Pakistan and Afghanistan and to expel foreign militants. They already have reached an agreement with one pro-Taliban cleric in the Malakand region, further to the north, and announced concessions Tuesday on implementation of Islamic law in order to smooth ongoing negotiations with another. U.S. and British officials, who have troops on the Afghan side of the porous border and are among those most concerned that al-Qaida uses the region to launch attacks on the West, have voiced cautious support. Washington and London are co-funding a plan to flood the impoverished tribal belt, a possible hiding place for al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, with development aid in a bid to dry up support for extremism. But they view past peace deals, struck under former army chief — now president — Pervez Musharraf, as failures and warn that any fresh accords must be strictly enforced. Militants have demanded the withdrawal of troops sent into the border region in 2001 by Musharraf, a close U.S. ally who retired from the military last year and whose power has diminished further since his opponents won February parliamentary elections. NATO spokesman James Appathurai said its eastern regional command reported attacks in its area of Afghanistan were up 50 percent in April compared with the same period last year. "The principle concern is ... the deals being struck between the Pakistani government and extremist groups in the tribal areas may be allowing them ... to have safe havens, rest, reconstitute and then move across the border," Appathurai told reporters in Brussels. He said the alliance was taking up the issue of militant safe havens with Pakistani authorities, and that NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer aimed to travel to Islamabad soon. "We do not want and do not intend to engage in the internal political activities of Pakistan, but we have every right to and will convey our concerns about what is happening inside Afghanistan," he said. |
| Posted by:Fred |