KABUL, Feb 4: The Afghan Taliban denied on Saturday that the group’s leader Mullah Omar wrote to the White House last year.

The White House received a letter in 2011 which purported to come directly from Mullah Omar, asking the United States to deliver prisoners whose transfer is now central to American efforts to broker peace in Afghanistan, an Obama administration official said on Friday.

“Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rejects this baseless rumour with the strongest of words,” a statement on the group’s website said.

The letter, intended for President Barack Obama, reportedly expressed impatience that the White House had not transferred five former Taliban officials out of Guantanamo Bay prison.

“Hoping for surrender from the Afghan people is an unrealistic wish and a goal which could not be achieved by America in the past ten years,” said Saturday’s statement, attributed to Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.—Reuters