Adding more friction to the intra Afghan peace talks, the Afghan government has shared serious reservations about the release of over 500 Taliban prisoners within the country’s legal and judicial institutions. These detainees are most likely not to be released.
“Our system (Afghanistan’s legal and judicial system) may not allow a number of the Taliban, who may not be the Taliban or the individuals who were listed and are accused with other issues to be released,” TOLO News quoted Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman to President Ashraf Ghani, as saying on Saturday.
On June 6, the government said that it was not releasing 597 prisoners of the 5,000 inmates that were to be freed as part of the US-Taliban agreement signed in late February, since they were accused of “crimes and moral issues”
Three days later, The Taliban handed over a replacement list for the 592 prisoners which were originally rejected as release candidates by Afghan government, said the TOLO News report
But, the Presidential Palace has said that the list so far has not been shared.
The government has so far released 4,019 prisoners and the Taliban has freed 737 inmates.
Meanwhile, the Taliban has said that the group will not endorse the intra-Afghan talks unless the Afghan government releases its 5,000 prisoners from the jails.
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