Following the advice of Loya Jirga, a grand assembly of elders, the Afghanistan government has decided to initiate peace talks with the Taliban. On the other hand, the Taliban has put forth a condition to release the remaining of the 5000 prisoners for joining the peace talks.
The Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani is likely to sign the decree to release around 400 Taliban prisoners. The Afghan government and the Taliban are expected to initiate the peace dialogue within a week of the release of the final batch of Taliban prisoners.
US Special Envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has spent several months trying to get Taliban and the Afghan government to negotiate, has welcomed the move.
“In the next few days, we expect the completion of prisoner releases, then travel off the Islamic Republic team to Doha, & from there the immediate start of intra-Afghan negotiations,” Khalilzad tweeted.
The Afghan government, however, may be a bit hesitant in releasing these prisoners as they were involved in some of the hard-hitting attacks including a truck bombing near the Embassy of Germany in Kabul that killed more than 150 people.
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