Pakistan said Saturday it would free seven Afghan Taliban prisoners including a senior commander to help reconciliation efforts in the neighbouring country.
   
Afghan President Hamid Karzai Karzai urged Islamabad in August to help set up talks with rebels allegedly based in Pakistan.
   
The Foreign Ministry named the captive Taliban militants as commander Mansoor Dadullah, Said Wali, Abdul Manan, Karim Agha, SherAfzal, Gul Muhammad and Muhammad Zai.
   
It said they were being released in addition to 26 others who were released during the last year.
   
But Taliban deputy leader Abdul Ghani Barader is not among those being set free, despite pleas by Afghanistan to release him as well.
   
It is believed that he was in talks with Karzai's government when captured in 2010 by Pakistani and US officials in the port city of Karachi. (DPA)