U.S. repatriate senior Taliban commander

The United States has repatriated three Pakistani prisoners, one of them reportedly Latif Mehsud, a senior Pakistani Taliban commander who was being held in Afghanistan.

The US military confirmed that it had “transferred” custody of three Pakistanis but did not reveal their identities. However, Pakistani officials said that Mehsud and his guards had been “released” and that he had been flown to Pakistan on a secret flight earlier this week.

“Latif Mehsud was handed over to Pakistani authorities along with his guards,” a Pakistani security official told Reuters. “They reached Islamabad.”

The three men had been held at the US military base of Bagram in Afghanistan where the U.S. will lose its legal right to detain prisoners by the end of the year.

"In making a decision to transfer a detainee, we take into account the totality of relevant factors relating to the individual and the government that may receive him, including but not limited to any diplomatic assurances that have been provided," the US military said in a statement.

Latif Mehsud was second-in-command to former Pakistan Taliban chief Hakimullah Mehsud when he was captured by the Afghan military in October 2013 in eastern Afghanistan. Mehsud’s capture enraged then-Afghani President Hamid Karzai, who saw it as a challenge to Afghan sovereignty. In a statement, the U.S. military said that Afghanistan wasn’t involved in Mehsud’s recent release.

His release coincides with a visit by outgoing U.S. Defence Secretary Chuck Hagel to Afghanistan and a surge of U.S. drone strikes against the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) and al Qaeda. On Saturday, the Pakistani military killed an al Qaeda commander who was accused of plotting to bomb the New York subway. The TTP is separate but allied with the Afghan Taliban.

Taliban’s government entered talks with the TTP in February and new Afghani President Ashraf Ghani has said that he intends to find a peaceful solution to the conflict with the Taliban.