Kidnapped Pakistani Ambassador Freed

Saturday's release of Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan after his kidnapping by Taliban militants in February this year, has prompted fresh questions over the extent to which the Pakistani government struck a deal with the Taliban to facilitate the release of its envoy.

"People kidnapped in this kind of situation do not just return without a bullet being fired unless there was some give and take" said a senior western diplomat in Islamabad, the Pakistani capital, speaking to CBS News on condition of anonymity.

While the Pakistani government denied that it had released anyone in exchange for Tariq Azizuddin's safe return, a senior Pakistani official who also spoke to CBS News Correspondent Farhan Bokhari on condition of anonymity confirmed that more than 35 taliban suspects in Pakistani custody, had been released by the government since Wednesday.

In return, so far there have been reports of the release of up to eight Pakistani paramilitary troops and government officials including Azizuddin. However, the Pakistani official who spoke to Bokhari, insisted that none of those released by the government so far were high ranking militants "whose value went much beyond mere foot soldiers".

Last month, a senior western diplomat based in Islamabad had told CBS News that Azizuddin's Taliban captors had sought the release of Mullah Mansoor Dadullah, the brother of Mullah Dadullah Akhund, the top Taliban military commander killed by NATO and Afghan troops in Afghanistan last year, in exchange for Azizuddin's release.

Since then, speculation has been rife with some Pakistani officials suggesting that Mullah Mansoor Dadullah was no longer in their custody, and had probably been handed over to the US. Pakistani officials said, they have handed over more than seven hundred militants belonging to the Taliban and Al Qaeda to the US military, since the country joined the US led war on terror after the New York terrorist attacks.

Pakistan's ambassador to Afghanistan returned home Saturday three months after he was kidnapped on the main highway through Pakistan's wild border region.

The release of Azizuddin came as the government seeks to negotiate peace deals to curb Islamic militancy along the Afghan border - an approach viewed with apprehension in the West.

However, senior Pakistani official Rehman Malik said the envoy was freed Friday through a "law enforcement action" and the government had made no concessions in return.

Azizuddin vanished Feb. 11 along with his driver and bodyguard as they drove from the city of Peshawar toward the Afghan border. Some officials have suggested he was snatched by a criminal gang seeking a ransom. But in a video aired April 19 on an Arab TV channel, Azizuddin said Taliban militants had abducted them.

On Saturday, tearful relatives of Azizuddin hugged and kissed him when he arrived at his home in Islamabad. Family members showered the envoy, whose gray beard had grown long during his ordeal, with rose petals to show their joy.

Azizuddin told reporters that his captors twice hit him on the head with a rifle after abducting him and forced him to read the videotaped statement at gunpoint. He identified the men only as Pakistani "mujahedeen," or holy warriors.

He said his release was the result of a "chain of actions set about on the order" of the government, but declined to elaborate.

His brother, Tahir Azizuddin, earlier said the envoy had been released "somewhere" in the lawless tribal areas along the border, where Taliban and al Qaeda militants hold sway.

Malik, the head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry, said there had been "no deal" for Azizuddin's release. "There is no exchange of terrorists," he said.

Prisoner exchanges are expected to be a central feature of any peace agreements reached between the new government and Pakistani militant groups it wants to wean away from violence.

About 30 militants were swapped for several military personnel, including two army officers, earlier this week in Waziristan, a key stronghold of Taliban militants overlooking the border.

The peace effort is being pushed by a coalition government which took office six weeks ago after routing supporters of President Pervez Musharraf, a long-standing U.S. ally, in February elections.

The ruling parties have shifted Pakistan's anti-extremist policy toward negotiations and away from Musharraf's reliance on military force. Many here blame his U.S.-backed approach for fanning the extremism which led to a wave of suicide bombings in Pakistan.

The government insists it will only make peace with "misled" groups who agree to renounce violence. It has already concluded one deal with a pro-Taliban cleric who promised on his release from jail to continue his campaign for Islamic law by peaceful means.

But its Western backers insist that any peace agreements must include provisions to prevent militants from using Pakistani territory as a base for raids in Afghanistan or to plot terrorist strikes in Europe and North America and that they are robustly enforced.

NATO said this week that it was worried that the peace talks had already contributed to a sharp spike in attacks on its troops in eastern Afghanistan in April.

An apparent U.S. missile strike on a suspected militant hide-out in Pakistan's Bajur region on Wednesday left about a dozen people dead and drew sharp protests from some Pakistani officials and political parties.

Militants vowed to take revenge on America for the attack - but also said they would continue to support the peace talks.