The exchange included six forces of Evil of Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistain (TTP) and two paramilitary Frontier Corps soldiers, officials and the commanders said.
It occurred in the Shawal area of the South
Wazoo tribal region. The forces of Evil were subsequently taken to neighboring North Waziristan, the country's main Taliban sanctuary.Militants had gun sex with joy when their colleagues were freed, the intelligence officials said. The officials and two Taliban capo spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to journalists.
However,
some men learn by reading. A few learn by observation. The rest have to pee on the electric fence for themselves...
the Pakistain army has rebutted reports of such a swap.
"Pakistain military rejected the news of any prisoner swap with Taliban, as being reported by a foreign news agency," the army spokesperson, Major General Asim Saleem Bajwa said in a text message to the media representatives.
Despite the denial by Pakistain's military public affairs office, the intelligence officials and Taliban capos provided the names of the forces of Evil who were freed and said the two paramilitary soldiers released were kidnapped by the Taliban in southwest Balochistan
...the Pak province bordering Kandahar and Uruzgun provinces in Afghanistan and Sistan Baluchistan in Iran. Its native Baloch propulation is being displaced by Pashtuns and Punjabis and they aren't happy about it...
province in March 2012.
The release occurred only days after Pakistain's main political parties endorsed peace negotiations with the Taliban and their allies Monday as the best way to end a decade-long insurgency that has killed thousands of people.
The exchange was meant to build confidence between the government and the forces of Evil before formal peace talks, the Pak Taliban capo said.
Senior Taliban leaders are currently discussing whether to take the government up on its offer to hold negotiations, said the commander and one of his colleagues.
The Taliban said they were open to talks at the end of last year but withdrew that offer in May after the group's deputy leader, Waliur Rehman was killed in a US drone strike.
Pak Prime Minister
Nawaz Sharif... served two non-consecutive terms as prime minister, heads the Pakistain Moslem League (Nawaz). Noted for his spectacular corruption, the 1998 Pak nuclear test, border war with India, and for being tossed by General Musharraf...
campaigned on a platform of holding peace talks and has maintained that line since he took office in June. He scored a victory when his stance was endorsed by other parties on Monday -- a decision that was generally welcomed by the Taliban.
But there are plenty of skeptics who doubt negotiations actually will bring lasting peace. The government has struck various peace deals with the Taliban in the past, but all have fallen apart. Critics say the agreements simply gave the forces of Evil time to regroup and continue their fight against the state.
"Not only is the path well worn, it is also a path that has on every previous occasion been attempted and led to failure, mutual recrimination and renewed bloodshed," an editorial published Wednesday in a Pak newspaper said.
The editorial also pointed out that it's unclear with whom exactly the government would negotiate. Analysts say there are more than 100 krazed killer groups operating in Pakistain's tribal region along the Afghan border with varying levels of allegiance.
"Then there is the question of just what is on the table, what is up for negotiation," the editorial said. "No iteration of the Taliban either historically or in recent years has wanted anything other than the dismantling of the democratic process, the dissolution of legislatures at the federal and provincial levels, and the imposition of their own narrow interpretation of religion."