KABUL – Afghanistan Government places new demands before the Taliban overthe intra Afghan peace talks.
The Presidential Palace on Saturday said the intra-Afghan negotiations willnot begin unless 24 Afghan commandos and pilots are released by theTaliban, something that is seen as one of the key obstacles in the way ofpeace.
The Afghan government has so far released over 5,000 Taliban prisoners,including 80 high-value inmates whose release was approved by Loya Jirga,grand council, earlier this month, TOLO News has reported.
According to government data, out of the 400 high-value prisoners, 156 ofthem have been sentenced to death, 105 of them are accused of murder, 34 ofthem are accused of kidnapping that led to murder, 51 of them are accusedof drug smuggling, 44 of them are on the blacklist of the Afghan governmentand its allies, 6 of them are accused of assorted other crimes, 4 areaccused of unspecified crimes.
Read Top Stories
Dawa Khan Minapal, a presidential spokesman, said the Taliban has shownless flexibility towards the release of prisoners so far.
“They [Taliban] have not completed the 1,000 security forces they committedto release. They have released 800 prisoners. The main condition is thatthey should address their committment,” Minapal said.
