Taliban refuses ceasefire call storing it for ‘Intra-Afghan talks’

In response to the ceasefire call, the Taliban responds that it will be discussed in the Intra-Afghan peace talks.

Suhail Shaheen, the Taliban political office spokesman, in an interview with a Syrian media, warns that if five thousand prisoners of the group are not released, the next option is war.

The presidential palace, in a press release, said that at the last meeting of the National Security Council it had been underlined that the prisoner release should continue based on the government’s policy.

The statement, however, expresses doubts about the prisoner release from the Taliban’s end.

President Ghani said, “I call on the Taliban to give a positive response to the legitimate demand of the United Nations, regional countries and the Afghan people, stop the war and reduce violence.”

However, Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson of the Taliban political office in Qatar, has told a news agency that the ceasefire has been included in the agenda of the Intra-Afghan talks. Shaheen has added that if the 5,000 prisoners of the Taliban are not released, the war will continue.

Shaheen said, “If they want to resolve the situation in a political way, this is the right way. The other way is the military approach which they have chosen for the last 18 to 19 years unsuccessfully.”

This comes as Roland Cobia, the EU special representative in Afghanistan, has welcomed the prisoner releases saying that it would be much better with the violence reduction.

He underscored that the prisoner releases will be more acceptable with reducing violence adding that the “Intra-Afghan talks should be started before the entire release of prisoners.”

So far, some 361 Taliban prisoners have been released by the government and some 20 government prisoners by the Taliban.

Yet both the laterals have questions about the released prisoners; thus the release process has been paused.