1,000 Taliban prisoners main hurdle to intra-Afghan talks

KABUL prisoners, a reliable source said on Wednesday.

The United States and the Taliban signed a historic peace deal in the Qatari capital Doha on Feb 29 this year after years long hectic negotiations.

Under the deal, the Afghan government has to release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban have to free 1000 prisoners.

Initially the government refused to release Taliban prisoners but later the president signed decrees on releasing the prisoners.

More than 3000 Taliban inmates have been freed by the government so far, while the rebels also released up to 600.

A few days ago, High Council of National Reconciliation Chairman Dr. Abdullah Abdullah was upbeat about the start of intra-afghan talks within two weeks, but the talks did not commence.

A reliable source in Qatar, who wished to go unnamed, told Pajhwok Afghan News that the first round of intra-Afghan talks were expected in the third week of the ongoing month, but the dispute over the prisoners remained unaddressed.

According to the source, under the US and the Taliban peace deal, the Afghan government has to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the Taliban have to free 1,000 prisoners.

The source added that Taliban had now brought changes in their prisoners’ lists and the main conflict in the list was the release of over 200 prisoners which, the Afghan government had rejected.

The source further added that European Union (EU), Australia and a number of other countries had also complained about the release of some of the Taliban prisoners.

US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad recently traveled to Qatar to discuss the prisoners release issue and he will visit Qatar and Afghanistan within next three days to resolve the rest of conflicts in this regard.

According to the source, disagreement still existed on the release of over Taliban’s 1000 prisoners.

The Afghan government has also objected to the release of 600 prisoners and some foreign countries had also complaints.

The source said the Taliban themselves also wanted to change the list.

The source said the Afghan government has prepared a 21-member team while the Taliban have a 17-member peace team for intra-Afghan talks.

The Taliban now want to bring some changes to their team to introduce new faces and the Taliban had also complained about the government peace negotiation team, the source added.

The source continued no one would mediate among the intra-Afghan talks and Qatar among Germany, the US and no other country will not be in the intra-Afghan talks.

Meanwhile, Taliban Doha office spokesman Sohail Shaheen said there was no problem from their side to commence intra-Afghan talks. He said they were ready for intra-Afghan talks in a week if all their prisoners were released.

“Every hurdle comes from the government side and our stance remains the same on the talks,” Shaheen said.

However, the government says the Taliban instead of reducing violence they intensified attacks on government forces.

Sadiq Sidiqi, the president’s spokesman, said the government had taken measures to facilitate the intra-Afghan talks and released 3600 Taliban prisoners while the rebels did not free government prisoners as per the pledge.

He asked the Taliban to reduce violence in order to pay the ground for intra-Afghan talks as soon as possible.

Pk/ma