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KABUL: A number of members of the parliament have criticized the release of the Taliban prisoners in exchange for the American University’s instructors, who have been abducted and taken hostage by the Taliban militants in 2016.
A lawmaker, Nilofar Ibrahimi has termed the decision of prisoners’ swap as a “shameful deal”, which had been made by President Ashraf Ghani. “If peace is a motive, the release of 850 prisoners was enough,” she added.
A number of other MPs have blamed the judicial organs for the move, saying that such acts would affect the motivation and moral of the Afghan National Defense Security Forces (ANDSF).
“Attorney General Office should be accountable in regards and should be summoned to the parliament,” said Hamayoun Shahidzada, a representative of western Farah province.
Moreover, a lawmaker, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi has accused the judicial system of lack of independency in its affairs, saying that the security forces would have been strengthen if the prisoners had been released in a bit for one month truce.
This comes as on Tuesday, in a press conference, the Afghan President Ashraf Ghani confirmed the release of three top Taliban and Haqqani groups affiliated members, who include Anas Haqqani brother of Sirajuddin Haqqani, the leader Haqani terrorist network, Mali Khan and Hafiz Rashid.
However, Ghani said the decision was made in consultation with the US officials in order to pave ground for direct talks with the Taliban representatives.
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Kabul, John Bass has praise Ghani’s decision, saying that hopefully the move would be helpful in reduction of violence and beginning of peace talks.
