Taliban prisoner release not to meet its due date – 14th March, Parwar Prison

Sources to the Taliban said that the tensions between the Afghan government and the Taliban on ‘how to release the prisoners’ has challenged the process.

Based on Ashraf Ghani’s decree, the process of releasing 1,500 prisoners of the Taliban is to start Saturday, March 14th.

However, some sources close to the Taliban underlined that the gov’t-Taliban tensions have caused the process not to meet its due date.

Sayed Akbar Agha, a former member of the Taliban said, “The Taliban insist that their prisoners should be released in accordance with the US-Taliban agreement, however, the government releases the prisoners on their own will.”

The government wants a gradual release of the prisoners, but the Taliban wants their prisoners released unconditionally before the start of the Intra-Afghan Talks.

The Afghan government has said that after the start of the Intra-Afghan Talks, each week, 500 prisoners would be released.

Khalil Safi, former head of the Afghanistan Peace Center, said, “The Taliban wants their 5,000 prisoners released, or else the Intra-Afghan talks won’t start.”

The Office of the National Security Council (ONSC) has been assigned to arrange the release of the Taliban prisoners, however, they didn’t comment on whether the process would start Saturday.

This comes as the State Ministry on Human Rights criticized the way the prisoners are released.

Sima Samar, State Minister on Human Rights, said, “Biometrics and written commitments will not stop them from going back to the battlefield.”

So far, neither the Afghan government nor the Taliban have stepped back from their stands, and it seems that the Intra-Afghan talks won’t start soon.