Pakistan to release Taliban’s second-in-command from prison Saturday

Reuters reports that the Pakistani government plans to release the Taliban’s second in command, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, on Saturday in a move the U.S. and Afghanistan hope will work as an olive branch to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table.

With Baradar’s release, the Pakistan and Afghanistan governments hope better relations can be made with the Taliban, and that he might be able to convince his comrades to surrender their weapons and participate in peace talks.

Baradar’s capture, as the Newshour reported in 2010, was a joint operation between the CIA and the ISI, Pakistan’s spy agency. That operation proved to be a positive and significant turning point for Pakistan’s diplomatic relationship with the United States.