Summary Spokesman says Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has given no such approval.
ISLAMABAD (Web Desk) - A spokesman of Prime Minister s Office has rebutted report of a foreign news agency that the Prime Minister has approved release of Taliban prisoners.
In a statement, he said the Prime Minister has given no such approval nor any prisoner has been released.
Earlier, British news agency Reuters has claimed that the government of Pakistan will release 100 more Taliban prisoners. The government has started releasing non-combatant prisoners to boost reconciliation efforts.
According to Dunya News, South Waziristan’s political administration released 16 Taliban prisoners on Wednesday as part of goodwill gesture.
According to reports, those freed were arrested during various search operations in South Waziristan two years ago. Sources say the free men include Mera Jan, Abdullah Jan, Salamat Khan, Bandshah Gul, Abdul Aziz, Noorzada, Satta Jan, Saddam Hussain, Ziauddin, Sher Pao, Riaz Ali, Mir Alam, Sher Alam Khan, Iqbal, Noor Alam.
The political agent of South Waziristan, the highest government official in the northwestern tribal region, confirmed.
"South Waziristan s political administration released sixteen men on April 1," Islam Zeb told Reuters.
"They are not major commanders. They are innocent tribals who were arrested during different search operations in South Waziristan in the last two to three years."
He said these men are freed upon guarantee of Senator Saleh Shah and have nothing to do with negotiation process.
Zeb said all the released prisoners belonged to the Mehsud tribe, a major Pashtun tribe living in South Waziristan. Another 100 prisoners on the Taliban s list were being processed and would be released in the next few days, he added.
Taliban negotiators were not immediately available to comment on the releases.
Intelligence officials confirmed that the prisoners were brought to the Zari Noor army camp in Wana, the region s main town.
The enclave on the Afghan border was once the epicentre of a spreading Taliban insurgency and the site of a major military offensive in 2009 that displaced half a million people.
Security officials said once at Wana, the prisoners were handed over to office of the political agent, who then released them to the Taliban.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif personally authorised the releases, a source in his office said - an apparent sign the premier is giving in to pressure from the Pakistan Taliban and resisting those in the military arguing for tougher military action against militant strongholds.
"But they (released prisoners) are all non-combatant civilians. They are not sensitive figures," the prime minister s aide said.
"Maybe some of them are Taliban sympathisers but they are not commanders and have no role in the talks process."
"Releasing them will create goodwill and we hope they (Taliban) will reciprocate," he added.
Sharif, who took power last year promising to strike a negotiated peace with the Taliban, has been trying to engage the militants, who want to topple his government and enforce severe Islamic law.
But talks broke down in February this year, when a Taliban wing operating in the Mohmand Pashtun tribal region said it had executed 23 soldiers in revenge for the killing of its fighters by the security forces.
Islamabad then refused to hold further talks until the Taliban announced a ceasefire on March 1.
The second round of peace talks now hangs in the balance after the Taliban announced on Wednesday they would not extend the ceasefire and warned that attacks would begin again in Pakistan. Pakistan was not entirely peaceful during the ceasefire either.
On Wednesday night, a bomb exploded near a bridge just 30 minutes before the convoy of former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf, who is on trial for treason, passed by. The retired general was not harmed.
Last month, a judge was among 11 people killed in a rare attack by a militant group calling itself Ahrar-ul-Hind on a court in Islamabad.
Pakistan s powerful military, which has the upper hand in policy-making and a free hand on internal security, has always been skeptical about talks.
A senior army official said the release of Taliban prisoners involved in attacks on civilians and the army was "impossible".
"There is no way these hardened militants will be freed," said the official who declined to be identified.
"Neither will the army pull out of the tribal areas. What are the Taliban asking: that we hand them parts of the country? That s not going to happen. No chance."
