Taliban offer truce in return for release of prisoners

KABUL (Pajhwok): Taliban have offered the government a three-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of 7,000 prisoners of the rebel movement, a government negotiator said on Thursday.

AFP quoted Nader Nadery as saying: “It is a big demand.” The militants had also called for the removal of Taliban leaders from the UN blacklist.

With the peace parleys in Doha virtually stalled for months, the member of the government negotiating team would not say as to who floated the offer and when.

The Taliban, who overran a significant town in southern Kandahar province on Tuesday night, have not yet commented on the ceasefire offer.

A day earlier, the Chinese foreign minister, speaking to his Afghan counterpart in Dushanbe, said his country was willing to host the peace talks.

PAN Monitor/mud

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