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KABUL: Rahmatullah Nabil, former intelligence director believes that the government had released a number of the 400 Taliban prisoners Ghani insisted to hold on charge of big crimes.
Nabil said Tuesday that some of these prisoners were released before convening of the Loya Jirga that called on the government to release all of the 400 imprisoned insurgents.
“As far as I have information, some of the 400 Taliban prisoners had been released before the Loya Jirga. A number of them were foreign nationals who were released after Pakistani army chief paid a visit to Kabul. This was why the government did not introduce them to Loya Jirga participants,” Nabil said.
Karim Khorram, chief of presidential staff under Hamid Karzai wrote on Twitter that only 165 out of 5,000 Taliban prisoners were kept at the time thee jirga was called.
But Intezar Khadem, an official at the National Security Council said that nobody of the 400 Taliban prisoners was released.
“I can assure the people of Afghanistan that none of the 400 inmates kept in different prisons has been released yet,’ Khadem said, rejecting reports that foreigners are among the 400 inmates.
Some participants of the Loya Jirga criticize the government for not sharing identities of the prisoners with them.
“Their identities and criminal records were not shared with us even as we asked for,” Abdullah Naji Nazari, a member of the Loya Jirga said.
