April 24 (The Killid Group) — The Afghan government has released an additional 55 Taliban prisoners on Thursday ahead of the holy month of Ramadan, a government official said.
Javid Faisal, a spokesman for Afghanistan’s Office of the National Security Council, said in tweet on Thursday that an additional 55 Taliban prisoners were freed at President Ghani’s decree on Wednesday [April 22] as a part of the Afghan government’s efforts for peace and to combat COVID-19 pandemic.
ONSC spokesman Javid Faisal added in his tweet the detainees were released on April 22 from nine provinces — Paktia, Logar, Badakhshan, Jawzjan, Ghazni, Baghlan, Khost, Paktika, and Maidan Wardak.
The Afghan government has so far released 480 Taliban inmates since April 8 as a part of the pact signed between the United States and the insurgents, while the Taliban has freed 60 prisoners of the government.
Earlier, the Taliban had accused the Afghan government of delaying the prisoner swap that was part of an agreement signed with the United States in the Qatari capital, Doha.
The two relevant technical foes were negotiating to try to finalize the prisoner swap that was supposed to have happened by March 10 and pave the path for the intra-Afghan peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban.
But the swap process was suspended, with the Afghan government claiming the Taliban wants the release of its 15 top commanders who were involved in “large scale” attacks, while the insurgents accused Afghan authorities of intentionally postponing the talks and needlessly wasting time.
But Suhail Shaheen, issued a denial saying that under the U.S.-Taliban pact signed on 29th of February, those 15 prisoners were also among 5,000 jailed Taliban to be freed in exchange for 1,000 Afghan prisoners.
Under a peace accord agreed between the United States and the militants, the United States and the Taliban are committed to work expeditiously to release combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure, with the coordination and approval of all relevant sides.
The U.S. signed the deal with the Taliban on February 29 that required the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners, and for the armed group to free 1,000 pro-government captives in return.
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