Pakistan has agreed to hand over to Afghanistan captured Afghan Taliban number two, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and other militants, the president's office said on Thursday, according to Reuters. Three senior Taliban officials were captured in Pakistan this month, including Mullah Baradar -- the highest profile Taliban leader to be held. "The government of Pakistan has accepted Afghanistan's proposal for extraditing Mullah Baradar and other Taliban who are in its custody and showed readiness to hand over those prisoners ... on the basis of an agreement between the two countries," a statement from President Hamid Karzai's office said. The prisoners "are accused of criminal acts", it said. The Taliban, who have made a steady comeback since being ousted by U.S.-backed Afghan forces in late 2001, are under pressure in Afghanistan. NATO is pushing ahead with one of its largest assaults in Afghanistan since the start of the war, aimed at driving the Taliban from their last big stronghold in the country's most violent province to make way for Afghan authorities to take over.
