Afghan govt, Taliban free more prisoners under peace deal

KABUL: The Afghan government has released the third batch of 100 Taliban inmates while the Taliban has said they will free 20 prisoners of the Kabul administration under the peace deal.

The spokesman for Afghanistan´s Office of the National Security Council said the prisoners were handed over to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Kandahar.

The Taliban spokesperson in a tweet said, “Today, 20 prisoners of the Kabul Administration will be released by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and handed over to ICRC in Kandahar.”

Today, 20 prisoners of the Kabul Administration will be released by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and handed over to ICRC in Kandahar.

— Suhail Shaheen (@suhailshaheen1) April 12, 2020

The Taliban confirmation came as the third group of 100 Taliban prisoners were released on President Ghani’s order, the Afghan National Security Council confirmed on Sunday.

In this regard, the commander of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan, Gen Austin S Miller also had a meeting with the Taliban leadership in Doha on Friday evening.

The United States signed an arrangement with the Taliban earlier on February that required the Afghan government — which was not a signatory to the deal– to free 5,000 Taliban inmates and for the Taliban to set free 1,000 pro-government fighters imprisoned in return to begin intra-Afghan negotiations.