Taliban military chief held after secret talks with Afghan envoys

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The head of Taliban's military council is to be tried by the jihadist
group for having engaged in unauthorised negotiationswith
Afghanistan's Higher Peace Council, intelligence sources have told The
Hindu .
Maulvi Muhammad Ismail was held by the Taliban in early April, two
weeks after he returned to Pakistan after a meeting with envoys from
the Higher Peace Council in the United Arab Emirates. His secret
negotiations with Kabul, the sources said, may have led the Taliban to
stage Sunday's attacks in Kabul — unprecedented in their scale — to
warn against future attempts to infiltrate its ranks.
Few details were availableon Mr. Ismail's arrest, which was impossible
to independently verify. Military sources in Kabul, however, said he
was replaced by Mullah Nasir, earlier the head of Taliban operations
in Ghazni. Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Directorate, the
sources alleged, had unearthed Mr. Ismail's negotiation efforts, and
insisted that the Taliban crack down on it.
Taliban negotiations with the United States in Doha broke down after a
stalemate developed over the release of five prisoners held in
Guantanamo Bay. The Taliban negotiation team is made up of Tayyab
Agha, Abbas Stanikzai and Shahabuddin Delawari, who moved to Doha from
Pakistan in 2010.
However, the Higher PeaceCouncil envoys have continued to reach out to
Taliban commanders operating inside Afghanistan. Afghan politicians
have blamed the ISI for not allowing their efforts to come to
fruition. In a report issued,the International Crisis Group said
Pakistani hardliners see "victory for their Afghan proxies" as
imminent. "This contributes greatly to Kabul's lack of progress in
talks with the insurgents," the ICG stated. / :-: Translator :-:
http://translate.google.co.in/m?hl=en&twu=1/
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