AFP, Islamabad :
US troops in Afghanistan have handed over three Pakistani detainees to Islamabad, a statement said Sunday, and a security source said one of them was a senior Pakistani Taliban commander.
“Acting on behalf of the United States government, we transferred custody of three Pakistanis held in US custody in Afghanistan, to Pakistan,” US Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement in Kabul.
“This followed consultations between the US and Pakistan and after receiving appropriate assurances”, it added.
The statement did not identify the detainees. But a Pakistani security official said one of them was Latif Mehsud, a close aide to the former chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakeemullah Mehsud.
He was brought to Islamabad on Saturday along with two other Pakistani militants captured in Afghanistan-one from the northwestern Pakistani city of Swat and another from the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan in May last year.
US troops in Afghanistan have handed over three Pakistani detainees to Islamabad, a statement said Sunday, and a security source said one of them was a senior Pakistani Taliban commander.
“Acting on behalf of the United States government, we transferred custody of three Pakistanis held in US custody in Afghanistan, to Pakistan,” US Forces-Afghanistan said in a statement in Kabul.
“This followed consultations between the US and Pakistan and after receiving appropriate assurances”, it added.
The statement did not identify the detainees. But a Pakistani security official said one of them was Latif Mehsud, a close aide to the former chief of the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Hakeemullah Mehsud.
He was brought to Islamabad on Saturday along with two other Pakistani militants captured in Afghanistan-one from the northwestern Pakistani city of Swat and another from the South Waziristan tribal region near the Afghan border.
Hakeemullah Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan in May last year.
