Addressing to media, Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the Afghan National Security Council, said today [June 9] that the Afghan government has so far released as many as 3,000 Taliban inmates in nearly 20 prisons across the country, adding that the process will continue.
The Taliban group, in return, has released 227 Afghan forces it was holding as its captives, he continued.
Faisal reiterated in his remarks that the Afghan government delegation is ready for the intra-Afghan peace negotiations and now it is time for the Taliban to take steps.
Jailani Farhad, a spokesman for Herat’s governor, meanwhile, confirmed today to The Killid Group that as many as 27 Taliban prisoners were released by the Afghan government on Tuesday [June 9].
Afghan political affairs experts, however, are confident that the prisoner swap process is, in fact, putting pressure on the relevant sides to move toward the start of intra-Afghan talks.
Jailani Zwak, an Afghan political analyst, believes that the relevant sides, in particular the insurgents group, in a bid to have an upper hand in the direct talks, have slowed down the process of prisoner releases.
The long-awaited intra-Afghan talks were set to begin on March 10, following a peace pact signed between the United States and the Taliban, but were delayed due to disagreements over the prisoner releases.
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