Release of Taliban prisoners will flood UK, Europe with drugs: Ghani

President Ashraf Ghani has warned the United Kingdom and Europe that if the final batch of Taliban prisoners are freed a wave of drugs could hit their streets.

In an interview with The Times Radio, Ghani said that should this happen, it would be the fault of the leaders of these countries. 

Ghani stated that many of the remaining 320 Taliban prisoners were drug kingpins and if released there could be a spike in the international drug trade.

Of the prisoners, he said: “They have killed both our international guests and our people … there are people that are large drug dealers … if drugs go through the roof then the United Kingdom, Europe and all your leaders have been part of this.

“If amphetamine reaches the shores of the United States and if these people commit crimes it’s a shared international responsibility,” he said. 

“We have made this decision together. We don’t have the means, unfortunately, to be able to contain all these people.” 

This comes after yet another delay in the start of peace talks between the Taliban and the Aghan government.

Initially, the Taliban refused to start intra-Afghan negotiations until 5,000 of its prisoners had been released. 

By early this month, Ghani had released just over 5,000, but not 400 that the Taliban had initially listed. 

These prisoners have all been declared “hardcore” and despite a decree issued by Ghani last week for them to be freed, only 80 of the 400 were released. 

Since the signing of the decree, the United States, France and Australia have all asked for some prisoners to remain behind bars – prisoners responsible for the deaths of their nationals. 

As such, talks that were originally scheduled to start last Sunday, have now been postponed indefinitely.

These developments come after the United States and the Taliban reached an agreement in Doha in February regarding the withdrawal of US troops and the start of peace talks. 

However, concerns have been raised over the past few months that the US is trying to speed up the peace process so that an agreement around complete troop withdrawal can be made before America’s November election. 

Asked by The Times whether he felt there was a “rush” by the Trump administration to leave Afghanistan, Ghani declined to answer and simply said as the elected leader of the country the “people have taken away my feelings and personal opinions”.

“A war-affected country does not have the luxury of determining policies and strategies of its major partners,” he said.