Afghanistan set to release 900 Taliban prisoners today: report

KABUL: Afghanistan is set to release 900 Taliban prisoners today from prisons across the country, Afghan media reports said.

Taliban had announced a ceasefire on Saturday for the three days of Eid. In a reciprocal gesture, President Ashraf Ghani pledged to release 2,000 more Taliban prisoners, and to focus on furthering peace efforts.

Around 1,100 Taliban prisoners were released in smaller numbers in the past few weeks.

The US-Taliban agreement signed in Doha in end February a total of 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 security force members promised to be released by the warring sides.

On Monday the Afghan government released 100 Taliban prisoners as part of the 2,000 prisoners it pledged to release, according to a spokesman for the National Security Council of the country.

Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen, welcomed the government pledge to release 2,000 prisoners but stressed that the process of releasing 5,000 prisoners should be completed to create a suitable environment for confidence building.

The decision to release the prisoners was taken “to ensure success of the peace process”, Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter on Sunday.

Meanwhile, the ceasefire appeared to hold as there were no reports of clashes between the Taliban and Afghan forces by the end of the first day on Sunday.

Ghani said a government delegation was “ready to immediately start the peace talks” with the Taliban.

Government negotiators would be headed by Ghani’s political rival Abdullah Abdullah after the two signed a power-sharing deal last week that ended a months-long political crisis.

The Taliban’s offer of a ceasefire came just days after leader Haibatullah Akhunzada urged Washington “not to waste” the opportunity offered by the Doha agreement that set the stage for the US troops pullout from the country after more than 18 years.