Kabul: A five-member delegation from the Taliban arrived in Kabul to discuss the issue of the Taliban’s prisoners, said Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the group’s political office in Doha.
 
According to Shaheen, the Taliban’s technical team will certify the identity of the prisoners. Shaheen said that the group released 80 members of Afghan forces in Baghlan and Kunduz provinces on Thursday.
 
The Afghan government has stated they will work together with the Taliban’s team about the swap.
 
“In order to extend the ceasefire and kickstart direct talks between the government and the Taliban, the Afghan government is fully prepared to take...other important steps,” said Sediq Sediqqi, a spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani.
 
On Saturday, President Ghani, in response to the Taliban’s announcement of a three-day Eid ceasefire, pledged to release 2,000 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture to help persuade the group to come to the peace talks.
 
So far the Afghan government has released 900 prisoners from the 2,000 ordered by Ghani.
 
Sources close to the Taliban have said that another batch of the Taliban inmates will be released soon.
 
“Intra-Afghan talks will not be started unless the 5,000 prisoners of the Islamic emirate are released,” said Jalaluddin Shinwari, the attorney general during the Taliban’s regime.
 
Previously, TOLOnews carried out a poll on its Facebook and Twitter platforms to gage Afghan perspectives of the Afghans on the release of the Taliban.
 
From 67,000 voters on Facebook, 55,000 voted against the release of Taliban prisoners.
 
Of the 24,000 users voted on Twitter, and 73 percent said that they support the release of Taliban prisoners.
 
“Most of the users on Twitter are from the elites and educated people who in a way are involved in the political developments, but on Facebook there are users who do not value the political and social issues,” said Ali Farhang, a legal expert in Kabul.
 
Ordinary Afghans have said that the Taliban leadership should guarantee that those who are coming out detainment should not return to the battlefield against Afghan forces.
 
“We hope that the war will end with the release of Taliban prisoners so that the people live in peace,” said Hassan, a resident in Herat.
 
The Taliban so far have released 250 Afghan government prisoners, and the Afghan government has released 2,000 prisoners.
 
The Taliban continue to demand the release of their 5,000 inmates jailed by the Afghan government, which was mentioned in the US-Taliban peace agreement signed in Doha on February 29. The agreement called for the Taliban to release 1,000 detained Afghan security force members.

https://tolonews.com/afghanistan/taliban-team-kabul-discuss-prisoner-release