Afghanistan Times
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KABUL: The government of Afghanistan has said to release the remaining prisoners of the Taliban but in condition if the group adopts practical measures toward reduction of violence to help facilitate the long-awaited intra-Afghan talks.
So far over 2,700 Taliban inmates were freed form Afghan custody as part of peace efforts.
National Security Council Spokesman, Javid Faisal denied the reports of releasing another 1,000 inmates as a gesture move by the government.
The gas set motion of at around 3,000 Taliban prisoners to be released—a move toward trust-building to eventually bring a political settlement to the ongoing but deadly Afghan war.
If the Taliban wants their more prisoners, they must show readiness toward violence reduction across the country, Faisal said.
In addition to the American troop withdrawal, the US-Taliban peace deal hammered out on February 29th has included the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners in return for the 1,000 Afghan security forces.
The intra-Afghan negotiations, in which the conflict parties will take important issues of the country into consideration, were supposed to be held ten days after US-Taliban deal. However, the negotiations have been delayed several ties due to continuation of attacks by the Taliban belligerents.
But the Taliban ahs tighten the intra-Afghan talks in releasing of their all prisoners—a contradiction within the Kabul administration. The government standpoint is that the issue could be discussed during intra-Afghan talks.
So far, the Talban freed 460 government prisoners, including the civilians. Both, Afghan government and the Taliban engaged in blame game, accusing each other of accuracy in numbers of prisoners that had so far been released.
