Atmar says gov’t will release remaining ‘hard-core’ Taliban prisoners by the end of next week

The Afghan government says that it would release the remaining “hard-core” Taliban prisoners by the end of next week, aimed to kick start the long-waited intra-Afghan negotiations.

In an online discussion hosted by Washington D.C.-based United States Institute of Peace, Acting Foreign Minister Mohammad Hanif Atmar said, “we will have released by the end of next week over 5 600 of Taliban’s prisoners.”

Atmar urged the freed prisoners not to return to the battlefields.

“The Taliban will have to honor their promise that these people will not go back to the battlefield,” he said.

Meanwhile, Abdullah Abdullah, Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation, said Thursday that Intra-Afghan negotiations between the Afghan government and the Taliban would start next week.

The first round of talks is expected to take place in Doha, Qatar, and will likely focus on a ceasefire. 

Talks were due to start early this month but stalled after President Ashraf Ghani failed to release the remaining 320 Taliban prisoners as per a decree he signed to this effect. 

Already about 5,000 Taliban prisoners have been freed but the last batch is deemed hardcore and is guilty of having masterminded some of the more serious attacks in the country while others are drug kingpins.

Atmar, however, said that most of this issue has been resolved.  

“It seems that most of the hurdles have been either removed or we are in the process of building consensus on a solution. I am cautiously optimistic that this will not be a further hurdle on the way,” Atmar said.