KABUL, Afghanistan, Sept. 14 (UPI) -- Kabul National Television said former Taliban ambassador to Pakistan Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef has been released from Guantanamo Bay detention.
Zaeef's release was facilitated under an Afghan government reconciliation program, Afghan state television said overnight. Following the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Zaeef became the Taliban's spokesman, holding regular news conferences at his Islamabad embassy where he attempted to convince the public that Osama bin Laden, at the time a guest of the Taliban, was not responsible.
Zaeef was released six days before Afghanistan's parliamentary and provincial council elections.
Taliban insurgents, who are still fighting 18,000 U.S. troops in southern and eastern Afghanistan, have denounced the elections and vowed to disrupt them. Kabul National Television reported Zaeef had met former president Sibghatullah Mojadidi, the head of the reconciliation program, but provided no further details of the meeting. In January 2002 Zaeef was taken into custody in Islamabad, Pakistan and handed over to U.S. authorities. The efforts by President Hamid Karzai's government to persuade Taliban guerrillas to surrender and return to society has met with limited success, but four prominent former Taliban are running in the election, among them Zaeef's old boss, former Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Ahmad Muttawakil surrendered to U.S. troops on Feb. 8, 2002 after the Taliban's ouster and was detained until being released from the U.S. Navy detention center at Guantanamo on Oct. 5, 2003.
