ISI freeing two top Afghan Taliban leaders shows nexus with insurgents: US officials

WASHINGTON - US officials have alleged that Pakistan’s intelligence agency, the Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) has freed at least two top Afghan Taliban leaders, whom it had captured some time back.

U.S. military and intelligence officials said the releases, detected by American spy agencies but not publicly disclosed, are evidence that parts of Pakistan’s security establishment continue to support the Afghan Taliban.

The officials, who spoke on conditions of anonymity, refused to divulge many details of the freed Taliban commanders, but said that they were ‘high-ranking Taliban members’.

“The capture of Baradar was positive, any way you slice it. But it doesn’t mean they’ve cut ties at every level to each and every group,” The Washington Post quoted a U.S. counterterrorism official, as saying.

“They did, in fact, capture and release a couple,” said another US military official adding that the ISI’s purported decision to do so “speaks to how hard it is to change your DNA.”

Reports said that the high-ranking militant commanders were nabbed in February, but US officials said the arrests were made in late January, just around the time Afghan Taliban’s second in-command Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar was captured near Karachi.

“The ISI wants to be able to resort to the hard-power option of supporting groups that can take Kabul, if the United States suddenly leaves,” said a U.S. military adviser briefed on the matter.

However, Pakistani officials have denied the claims, saying the ISI is committed to dismantling insurgent groups.

He rubbished reports regarding any Taliban operatives been released after being captured.

“It is our policy that we will go against these people. The CIA and the ISI are working like this,” a Pakistani intelligence official said while clasping his hand together.

Even though U.S. officials agree that the collaboration between the CIA and the ISI has improved substantially, they believe that there are signs that some ISI operatives are providing sanctuary and other assistance to factions of the Taliban when their CIA counterparts are not around.

“CIA officials think that the ISI’s connection to the Taliban is active, but it’s not clear how high that goes or who knows about it,” the newspaper quoted a high-ranking U.S. counterterrorism official, as saying.

“The Pakistanis did a sharp change of policy after 9/11, and it’s not certain everybody got the memo or read it if they did,” the official added. (ANI)