The Limited Times

Now you can see non-English news...

Afghanistan releases almost 200 Taliban prisoners

2020-09-02T10:30:10.111Z


The Afghan government has continued the controversial release of Taliban fighters from prisons. With this she hopes to clear the way for peace negotiations with the radical Islamists.


Nearly 200 Taliban fighters were released from prisons by the Afghan government earlier this week.

You are part of a group of several hundred inmates who are numbered among the hard core of extremists and who are held responsible for serious attacks like the one near the German embassy in Kabul three years ago.

The Afghan government wants to clear the way for the postponed peace negotiations to end the war that has been raging in the Hindu Kush for almost two decades, as senior government officials confirmed on Wednesday.

Kabul had long hesitated to release these extremists.

But the Taliban insisted on it as a condition for starting negotiations.

At the beginning of August the great council assembly approved the release.

In February, as part of a pact between the United States and the Taliban, an agreement was reached in Doha to release 5,000 prisoners.

In return, the extremists were supposed to release 1,000 prisoners from their violence, including this time when, according to high-ranking government officials, they let six members of the Afghan special forces evacuate.

The Afghan government was not involved in the talks at the time because the Taliban had refused direct negotiations with Kabul.

A government representative, who did not want to be named, indicated to the Reuters news agency that the remaining 120 Taliban who were still imprisoned could also be released during the day.

"We want to complete the prisoner exchange so that we can start the peace process as soon as possible."

A spokesman for the High Council for National Reconciliation announced that a government delegation would fly to Qatar on Thursday to prepare for peace talks. 

Icon: The mirror

as / dpa / Reuters

Source: spiegel

All news articles on 2020-09-02

You may like

News/Politics 2024-02-18T09:20:46.495Z
Business 2024-02-13T18:09:43.880Z

Trends 24h

News/Politics 2024-03-27T16:45:54.081Z
News/Politics 2024-03-28T06:04:53.137Z

Latest

© Communities 2019 - Privacy

The information on this site is from external sources that are not under our control.
The inclusion of any links does not necessarily imply a recommendation or endorse the views expressed within them.