Karachi: Pakistan government has kept Taliban's former No.2 leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in a safe house in Karachi after his release, sources said.
“Mullah Baradar was flown to Karachi from Peshawar early on Sunday. He is being kept in a safe location in Karachi,” a Pakistani intelligence source told a foreign news agencyl.
The report quoted a senior Pakistani official as saying: “He will not be sent to Afghanistan. He is in a safe house in Karachi. ... Everything will be decided between Pakistan, Afghanistan and the United States.”
Pakistan announced Baradar's release to coincide with Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's visit to New York. “The timing of his release was tied to his (Sharif's) departure so that Pakistan is seen as doing all it can (for the Afghan peace process),” said the government source.
Baradar was once a close friend of one-eyed Taliban supremo Mullah Mohammad Omar, who gave him his name “Baradar” or “brother”, and still enjoys respect among the Taliban fighters.
Known as a pragmatic operator, Baradar is believed to be willing to play the role of a peace ambassador, having once reached out to Kabul to seek a peace settlement.
The report said Baradar has been reunited with his family in Karachi, from where he was arrested in 2010.
