Freeing Taleban not contributing to Afghan peace

Afghan officials say Pakistan’s release of 33 Taleban prisoners from jail, a policy initially trumpeted by Kabul as an opportunity to ignite peace talks, has resulted in no concrete progress.
The Afghan government, desperately searching for a way to negotiate peace before NATO troops leave next year, has said that the release of influential insurgents could encourage their comrades to the negotiating table.
But despite the 33 Afghan Taleban prisoners released by Pakistan and dozens of others freed in Afghanistan, there is still no peace process and some fighters have returned to the battlefield.
The Taleban still refuse publicly to deal with the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, branding him a US puppet.
They have also shown no willingness to participate in elections on April 5, 2014 when Karzai will step aside for a new leader for the first time since the 2001 US-led invasion.
Instead their readiness to negotiate with the Americans about a prisoner swap has only infuriated Karzai, who late last month asked Pakistan to help find a direct channel of communication. In parts of Afghanistan, which continue to suffer daily from Taleban violence, the releases have been met with incomprehension if not anger by local government officials. “The Taleban who are released... rejoin the battlefield again,” said Zurawar Zahid, police chief of the southern province of Ghazni.
“We put our lives in danger to arrest them, but the central government releases them under different pretenses,” he added.
Mohammad Ali Ahmadi, deputy provincial governor of Ghazni, also believes that the Taleban releases have done nothing to help.
“The people who are behind bombings, killing innocent civilians and government officials should be punished.
“The central government knows they will rejoin the Taleban again after they are released, it is not going to help the peace process,” he said.
Afghans have also complained about the manner in which the Pakistanis have released the detainees — without any warning and without delivering them to Afghan authorities.
“We don’t even know what happens to them after they’re released,” said Ismail Qasimyar, a senior member of the High Peace Council set up to reach out to the Taleban.
“When they decide to free Taleban, they only inform the Afghan government a few hours before," he added.
“The Taleban releases by Pakistan have not been effective for the Afghanistan peace process," he said.
Pakistan now says it intends to release its most senior Afghan Taleban detainee, former military leader Abdul Ghani Baradar who has been described as number two to supreme leader Mullah Omar.
“He is no longer as important for the Taleban as he used to be before being arrested,” said Pakistani militancy expert Rahimullah Yusufzai.
“Nor will it (the Taleban) accept him as a mediator. The Taleban would rather like to watch him before assigning him any role.
“But I don’t think Baradar will be assigned the kind of role that the US and Karzai administrations expect him to be given — to mediate between Kabul and the Taleban,” Yusufzai added.
Rather than benefiting peace talks, the releases have perhaps been limited to an attempt to re-establish trust between Kabul and Islamabad, whose relations are clouded by deep distrust. Both trade blame over the Taleban militants threatening security in both countries, and Kabul accuses elements of the Pakistani state of funding, controlling and sheltering the Afghan Taleban. Islamabad says publicly it will do anything to stop the fighting in Afghanistan.