Afghan FM to press Pakistan on Taleban releases

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Afghanistan today sent a second high-level delegation in weeks to Islamabad to press for the release of Taleban prisoners in a bid to kickstart peace efforts, officials said.

Talks this month between Pakistan and Afghanistan's High Peace Council resulted in the release of nine Taleban, but not the militia's former deputy leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who was captured in 2010.

Afghan officials believe senior Taleban leaders held in Pakistan could help bring militants to the negotiating table, if released from jail, to end over a decade of war ahead of the 2014 pull-out of US-led Nato troops.

Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul today arrived in Islamabad for one day of talks with his counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar and other Pakistani officials, an AFP photographer said.