Arrangements to release 2,000 more Taliban prisoners

The Taliban technical delegations and the Afghan government are preparing a list of 2,000 other Taliban prisoners for release in Kabul.

An inside government source said that the government may not agree to release some of the prisoners on the list, so the release of 2,000 prisoners will begin after taking a review of the list.

Nonetheless, President Ghani has said that the 2,000 Taliban prisoners will be released soon.

Latif Mahmood, a deputy presidential spokesman, said, “The release of the detainees is a fundamental decision of the government to end the violence, secure the ceasefire and speed up the peace process. We expect the opposition to stop violence and engage in peace (talks) which is the main desire of people.”

With the release of 2,000 other prisoners, the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners will be completed based on the US-Taliban agreement.

Ahmad Saeedi, a political expert, said, “The release of 5,000 prisoners is being done under the pressure of the United States and Zalmay Khalilzad. He (Khalilzad) made this clear during a recent meeting with the three Afghan leaders: Hamid Karzai, Ashraf Ghani, and Abdullah Abdullah that the talks will not start unless the prisoner releases are completed.”

As the peace process progresses, the Office of the National Security Council says 89 civilians were killed and 150 others wounded in Taliban military operations in the past two weeks – a claim denied by the Taliban.

“In the last two weeks alone, they have martyred 89 civilians and wounded 150 others in 29 provinces, contrary to all human, Islamic and war principles,” said Jawid Faisal, the spokesman for the ONSC.

Although government sources acknowledge that violence has declined in the graph, violence has not been significantly reduced as expected by the government.