The Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, was held on Friday with over 3,200 delegates and has been met with mixed reactions, with many people calling it "symbolic" and saying that the government leaders should not impede the peace process with such special measures.  

The Jirga was held to decide the fate of the 400 Taliban prisoners who are accused of serious crimes.

According to government data, 156 of them have been sentenced to death, 105 of them are accused of murder, 34 of them are accused of kidnaping that led to murder, 51 of them are accused of drug smuggling, 44 of them are on the blacklist of the Afghan government and its allies, 6 of them are accused of other crimes, 4 are unknown.  

The list of 5,000 prisoners was given to the Afghan government by the Taliban to be released ahead of intra-Afghan negotiations that are expected to be held in Doha.

So far, the government has released 4,600 of the prisoners on the Taliban list, and an additional 500 who were not on the Taliban list. These last 500 were freed during Eid in response to the Taliban’s announcement of a ceasefire.

https://tolonews.com/index.php/afghanistan/calls-fast-tracked-peace-jirga-begins