Mutawakil was reportedly released by U.S. forces

Additional Reporting By Husbanulla Mutawakel, IOL Correspondent

KABUL, October 8 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Taliban Foreign Minister Wakil Mutawakil was reportedly released by U.S. forces after arranging talks between Washington and the ousted Afghan regime, but Afghani President Hamid Karzai dismissed on Wednesday, October 8, the news as untrue 

Ending 22 months in American custody, Mutawakil "was freed from the U.S. military headquarters at Bagram after he mediated talks between American officials and Taliban members," a source close to Mutawakil told IslamOnline.net.

The source dated the release back to Saturday, October 4, saying that the former Taliban minister, who had doubled as a spokesman for the hardline group at the time of U.S. attacks, "now stays in his home town of Kandahar".

"He was severely tortured by the U.S. forces, and suffered from tuberculosis with no medical care during his detention," the source said.

Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage arrived in Kandahar on Sunday, October 5, but the U.S. official denied reports that he had met Taliban elements.

A Taliban official had said in September 2003 that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (C.I.A.) approached the ousted regime for negotiations to reach a settlement to the deteriorating situation in the country. 

U.S., Afghan Denials

President Karzai, however, denied that Mutawakil had been released, said Agence France-Presse (AFP).

"That's not true, absolutely not true," he told reporters at the presidential palace, before turning to U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad to ask him: "Is this true?"

"No, we have not released him yet," said Khalilzad, who has been nominated by U.S. President George W. Bush to be Washington's next ambassador to Kabul.

And Afghan foreign ministry official confirmed Mutawakil had been freed earlier this week.

Also, U.S. military spokesman Colonel Rodney Davis said he was unaware of the release.

Mutawakil's uncle Abdul Ghafoor Khadam said that his nephew had traveled from Kabul to Kandahar on a United Nations aircraft.

He said his nephew had told him over the telephone: "I'm good, the police provides security for me, some police forces are guarding my house."

Mutawakil, 32, was a key figure in the Taliban's leadership council but surrendered to U.S. troops after two months of hiding in the tribal area along the Afghan-Pakistan border when the Taliban regime fell in late 2001.

"That's not true, absolutely not true," Karzai

Regarded as a moderate among the Taliban, Mutawakil had reportedly tried to negotiate the handing over of Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, blamed by Washington for the September 11 attacks, to ward off a then looming U.S. military aggression on the country.

The U.S. military routinely refuses to discuss prisoners held at Bagram base or other detention centers in Afghanistan in the wake of the Taliban ouster.

Hundreds of Taliban and Al-Qaeda suspects were transferred from Bagram to the U.S. naval base at Guantanamo Bay on Cuba, where they are being held indefinitely and so far without being charged.

U.S.-led forces on October 7, 2001, launched an assault on Afghanistan allegedly to oust the Taliban regime, but many Afghans suspect the motives to move into this strategically key area.

"These are false allegations. All what the American forces want is to control the natural riches here in Afghanistan," Afghan student who gave his name as Abdel-Hamid told IslamOnline.net.

"It has nothing to do with morals since the situation is still volatile in the country two years after the deployment of U.S. forces. But it does rather matter with politics," Abdel-Hamid said, testifying to the rising anti-American sentiments among the Afghans.

The head of the Afghani Higher Supreme Court slammed last year the inability of the Afghani legislative system to take legal action against U.S. soldiers "who committed war crimes against civilians" in the country.