Pakistan agrees to release more Taliban prisoners

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar met with her Afghan counterpart Zalmai Rassoul here on Friday.

In a joint statement issued following the meeting, Pakistan agreed to release another batch of Taliban prisoners in a bid to facilitate peace talks between insurgents and the Afghan government.

Both sides also agreed to operationalize a Joint Commission to address the prisoners issue as announced during the visit of President Karzai to Islamabad in June 2011.

The two countries also reaffirmed their commitment to jointly overcome the challenges of terrorism and extremism.

Following the meeting during a joint news conference, Pakistan also announced its support for a Ulema conference scheduled to take place in Kabul in January, 2013.

Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar said that Pakistan is keen to strengthen its ties with Afghanistan and it also supports the peace process in the neighbouring country.

Khar told reporters that a delegation of Afghan Peace Council visited Pakistan few days ago and their trip went ‘successful.’

Khar said that she herself visited Afghanistan four times and the Afghan Foreign Minister arrived in Islamabad on the country’s invitation.

She said that both the neighbouring countries are facing same challenges of terrorism and narcotics.

On the occasion, the Afghan Foreign Minister Zalmai Rassoul said that his country would not allow its soil to be used against Pakistan. He said that the two countries discussed Afghan peace process during their talks.