Afghanistan and Pakistan pledged to promote confidence-building measures to encourage Taliban leaders to join Kabul's peace efforts and end more than a decade of insurgent violence, according to dpa. "Pakistan and Afghanistan will work closely with other international partners to remove the names from the UN sanctions list of the potential negotiators amongst Taliban and other groups to enable them to participate in peace talks," a joint statement released late Wednesday said. "All concerned countries, including Pakistan, Afghanistan and USA, will facilitate safe passage to potential negotiators to advance the reconciliation process," it said. The statement followed the conclusion of a series of meetings in Islamabad between Afghan peace mediators led by Salahuddin Rabbani and Pakistan's top leaders and religious figures. It also confirmed that Pakistani authorities released "a number of Taliban detainees" on the request of Kabul to support its reconciliation efforts. Officials privately said fewer than a dozen Afghan Taliban prisoners were released but refused to give any names. The officials, however, confirmed that Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban's number two leader, who was arrested in Pakistan in February 2010, was not on the list of those released. It was not immediately clear whether Rabbani and his colleagues met the freed men although Afghanistan's High Peace Council member Amin Muzafari said this week that the delegation would ask Pakistan to assist in arranging such meetings. Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States have formed a working group to discuss ways to ease the travel of Taliban leaders taking part in peace talks, several of whom are alleged to be hiding in Pakistan's north- and south-western regions bordering Afghanistan. The Taliban has previously rejected negotiations with the Afghan government, and Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid refused to immediately comment on the new developments.
