Afghanistan suspends release of Taliban prisoners

The government of Afghanistan has suspended the release of the last batch of Taliban prisoners involved in serious crimes, while a suicide car bomber killed three policemen in a district bazaar in the eastern province of Nangarhar.

According to  Afghanistan’s news channel TOLOnews, the Afghan government on Monday reiterated its stance not to release 600 Taliban prisoners, who have been found to be involved in serious crimes other than Taliban membership.

So far, 4,000 Taliban prisoners and 500 Afghan security personnel have been released.

TOLOnews added that the government has asked the Taliban group not to request the release of certain individuals, as the Taliban have always maintained that they provided US officials with a list of their specific allies during the peace talks.

Presidential spokesman Siddique Siddiqui said that the United States has agreed with the Taliban to release 5,000 prisoners. We do not expect the Taliban to tell us who to release. The dispute over the release and exchange of prisoners between the Afghan government and the Taliban The biggest obstacle to peace talks.

Meanwhile, a suicide car bomb blast at a district bazaar in Afghanistan’s eastern province of Nangarhar has killed at least three Afghan Local Police (ALP) personnel and injured five others.

On the other hand, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has warned that the country’s peace process is under threat from Taliban attacks and violence.

Ashraf Ghani briefed the international community on peace talks with the Taliban, where the two sides have been working to end the nearly two-decade-old war.

Violence has eased since the Taliban offered a ceasefire in May, but has risen sharply in recent years, killing scores of security personnel and civilians.

Note that, Afghan authorities have released 4,000 of the 5,000 prisoners under an agreement reached in February, which, if implemented, would pave the way for the withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan.

Under the agreement, the United States has reduced its troop numbers in Afghanistan to 8,600, with more than 12,000 US troops present at the time of the agreement.

The Taliban has denied responsibility for most of the attacks in recent years but has acknowledged that its fighters are targeting Afghan security forces in rural areas.

It should be noted that after the 9/11 attacks in the United States, the United States invaded Afghanistan to eliminate Al Qaeda and the Taliban.

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