PESHAWAR, Pakistan — The Afghan Taliban on Saturday said that U.S. Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl doubted that he was being released to the U.S. after almost five years in captivity.
According to the Taliban, they had informed Bergdahl a few days ago about his likely release, but he didn't believe it.
Two years ago, Bergdahl was handed over to members of the Quetta Shura, or council — the decision-making body of the militants — for his scheduled release in exchange for five Taliban commanders being held by the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay, said a senior Taliban commander affiliated with the Haqqani network, a major militant faction of the Afghan Taliban.
"It is war in which they kill us and we kill them, but we did whatever we could to make him happy and return with good memories"
"The talks at that time failed, and he was again handed over to his captors, and that's why he didn't trust when [he] was told about his likely release," the Taliban commander told NBC News on the phone from Afghanistan.
But this time, “our talks finally proved successful for [a] prisoners' swap. We returned our valued guest to his countrymen and they released our people.” said the Taliban commander.
- / AFP - Getty ImagesSgt. Bowe Bergdahl appears in a video released by the Taliban in 2010. A Taliban commander is at right.
Pleading anonymity, he said talks for a prisoners' swap had been going on for several weeks.
He said a Muslim country that has sympathies with the Taliban played an important role in bringing together the Taliban and U.S. officials to broker the prisoner exchange. He did not name the country involved, but U.S. officials and the Taliban confirmed that Qatar helped with the talks.
"It is war in which they kill us and we kill them, but we did whatever we could to make him happy and return with good memories
The Taliban commander said Bergdahl had mostly been held in the tribal areas between Pakistan and Afghanistan after his kidnapping from Afghanistan’s Paktika province in June 2009.
After Bergdahl’s release deal was finalized, he was taken to Ali Sher town in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province by a third party, and then delivered to the American forces.
“We don't know further what happened to him," the Taliban commander said.
Meanwhile, an official statement from the Taliban, which calls itself the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, focused on the "leaders" it said were being released in exchange for Bergdahl.
"They were released as a result of indirect talks between the Islamic Emirate and the US which has been going for some time with the mediation of Qatari government," according to the statement translated into English by NBC News. "They will live normal lives in Qatar with their families."
Traditional turban
The Taliban commander who spoke to NBC News directly said Bergdahl was given a traditional Afghan turban as a parting gift before his release.
"It is war in which they kill us and we kill them, but we did whatever we could to make him happy and return with good memories," he said.
But in videos released by the Taliban that have been criticized as propaganda, Bergdahl pleaded to go home.
In a 2009 video after his capture, Bergdahl said he was “scared,” and in later videos he is seen gaunt and blindfolded.
In a 2010 video he pleads, “Let me go … I’m a prisoner. I want to go home. Every day I want to go home. The pain in my heart to see my family again doesn’t get any smaller.”
The Department of Defense declined to comment on the Taliban’s claims, saying it is focused on getting Bergdahl healthy and back in the U.S. before getting into the details of his imprisonment.
“Right now first priority is his medical care; we’re going to proceed at a pace he’s comfortable with.”
— Phil Helsel contributed to this report
First published May 31 2014, 5:29 PM
Mushtaq Yusufzai
Mushtaq Yusufzai is a journalist based in Peshawar, Pakistan. Originally from Mardan in Pakistan's North West Frontier Province, he began his journalism career in 1999 as a health reporter on the News, a leading English-language daily.
But his professional life was transformed by the 9/11 attacks on the United States and the subsequent U.S.-led ousting of the hardline Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
He was always interested in reporting on Pakistan's tribal areas because he found them to be the most challenging.
He has roved Pakistan’s dangerous tribal belt in the course of his reporting for NBC News since 2004, including mountainous Waziristan. He has risked life and limb – and endured several kidnappings – to get the story from the Taliban and warlords in Pakistan’s dangerous tribal region.
He was the winner of the inaugural Kate Webb award, set up by Agence France-Presse (AFP) to honor the life and career of the legendary foreign correspondent, in 2008.
In 2009, Yusufzai was among the four journalists, out of 400 worldwide, selected for the Dag Hammarskjold Fellowship and invited to New York to attend U.N. General Assembly.
The World Health Organization in 2010 and 2011 awarded him with gold medals for investigative journalism in health related to polio. And in 2012, the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa health department gave him a gold medal for best health reporting related to polio in the region.
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