Kabul has decided not to release some 600 Taliban prisoners claimed by the insurgents because they are " too dangerous, " government officials said on Wednesday, announcing another delay in the start of peace talks in Afghanistan.
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These 597 detainees " involved in murders, robberies, smuggling " are " too dangerous to be released, " a government source told AFP on Wednesday. Among them are " foreign fighters ," he added. " We are ready for peace and we will release the prisoners to reach the figure of 5,000, as established by the Doha-US-Taliban agreement , but" just not the hundreds of prisoners accused of serious crimes ", said at AFP Javid Faisal, spokesperson for the National Security Council (NSC), a government body.
President Ashraf Ghani has promised to release 5,000 Taliban detainees, more than 4,000 of whom have already been released, against 1,000 Afghan security forces detained by insurgents, as stipulated in the Doha agreement, not ratified by Kabul .
Peace Dialogue
In this text, signed at the end of February, Washington promised to withdraw foreign troops from Afghanistan by mid-2021 in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban, in particular the start of a peace dialogue. If the Taliban have repeatedly declared themselves " committed " to respecting the terms of the agreement, they regularly accuse the non-start of discussions to the Afghan government, accused of not releasing their prisoners quickly enough, of which they have established a nominal list.
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" If they continue to create difficulties on this subject, it shows that they do not want the problems to be resolved in a reasonable manner ," Zabihullah Mudjahid, the spokesman for the Taliban who spoke out, told AFP. the exchange of prisoners a prerequisite for the start of the inter-Afghan dialogue.
Afghan presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said this week, however, that Afghan authorities " do not expect the Taliban to tell them which detainees should be released ." Violence has declined in the country since the Taliban announced a three-day ceasefire in late May to mark the end of Ramadan. But Afghan authorities say insurgent attacks have picked up again in recent weeks.
