Eight days prior to the horrendous slaughter of more than 100 children at a Pakistan school, U.S. officials handed over three Pakistani prisoners to Islamabad, which reportedly included the second in command of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, the terrorist organization claiming responsibility for Tuesday's attack in Peshawar.
On Tuesday morning, gunman entered a school and started shooting children while a suicide bomber detonated his vest immediately after walking into a classroom. By the end, six attackers were killed by security forces and 142 people had died, mostly students in the Army-run school in Peshawar, situated near the frequently violent border region between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
After claiming responsibility, TTP revealed that their aim had been to strike terror and grab global attention.
So the pressing question now is whether senior Pakistani Taliban commander Latif Mehsud had any hand in the murder of more than 100 school children. And whether Tuesday's gruesome tragedy could have been prevented if President Obama had not released the three Pakistani prisoners, according to Viral Buzz.
On Dec.7, the U.S. military confirmed that it had "transferred custody" of three Pakistanis, but declined to reveal their identities, BBC News reported.
"In making a decision to transfer a detainee, we take into account the totality of relevant factors relating to the individual and the government that may receive him, including but not limited to any diplomatic assurances that have been provided," the U.S. military said in a statement.
However, Pakistani sources claimed that Mehsud was one of them, who had long been sought after by the Pakistani government since his capture in October 2013, security officials said.
Earlier this week, several senior officials said that the commander had been secretly flown to Pakistan, Dw.de reported.
"TTP (Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan) senior commander Latif Mehsud who was arrested was handed over to Pakistani authorities along with his guards," one Pakistani security official said. "They reached Islamabad."
Some correspondents have speculated that even though the repatriation of a senior Taliban figure is extremely unusual, it could have been carried out as an attempt to improve ties between Afghanistan and Pakistan.
It would not be the first time that Obama's administration have handed over Taliban leaders to Pakistan authorities, who in turn have allegedly been known to release the prisoners into the country's main populace.
Meanwhile, U.S. will lose its legal right to detain prisoners in Afghanistan by the end of the year. Since it has been housing several dozen prisoners at a detention center near Bagram airfield in Afghanistan, officials are currently grappling with the question of what to do with them.
"We're actually just going through and returning all the third-country nationals detained in Afghanistan to resolve that issue," a U.S. embassy spokeswoman said.
