A senior Taliban official will be released from a Pakistan prison sometime this month, AFP reported.
Abdul Ghani Baradar, known as the group's former second-in-command, will be free after being arrested in January 2010 in an operation performed by both CIA and Pakistani agents.
Ever since, the Afghan government has demanded that Barader be released so they can work on peace talks with the insurgent group. He is the 34th Taliban detainee to be released by Pakistan in the last year.
"Pakistan has decided in principle to release Mullah Baradar," said Sartaj Aziz, advisor to the prime minister on national security and foreign affairs.
Aziz said he will "likely be released this month" and will not be handed over to the Afghan government.
Two weeks ago, Afghan President Hamid Karzai visited Pakistan to speak with the new Prime Minister Nawaz Shari, where he requested Baradar's release.
Officials in the Afghan government hope that releasing the Taliban prisoners will open dialogue for peace talks, although some say there is little evidence to support that possibility. It is assumed that some of the released prisoners have returned to battle.
According to AFP, the Taliban depicts Karzai and his government as "puppets" of the American government and have publicly denied any talk with the administration.
Baradar was born in Uruzgan, Afghanistan and fought in the war to push out Soviet troops in Afghanistan in the 1980s. As the Taliban rose to power in 1995, his friendship with leader Mullah Omar led him to his position as deputy defense minister.
It is believed when the Taliban government was invaded by the U.S. in 2001 that officials fled to neighboring Pakistan. Baradar was reportedly a close associate of former Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden leading up to the terrorist attacks.
