Kabul – Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced Tuesday that threehigh-ranking Taliban prisoners would be released, in an apparent exchangefor two Western hostages who were kidnapped by the insurgents in 2016.
The three Taliban prisoners include Anas Haqqani, who was seized in 2014and whose older brother is the deputy Taliban leader and head of theHaqqani network, a notorious Taliban affiliate.
“We have decided to conditionally release three Taliban prisoners who…have been in Bagram prison in the custody of the Afghan government for sometime,” Ghani said in an announcement at the presidential palace.
He did not specify the fate of the Western hostages — an Australian and anAmerican — and it was not clear when or where they would be freed.
But Ghani noted in his speech that “their health has been deterioratingwhile in the custody of the terrorists”.
He added that the release of the two professors would “pave the way” forthe start of unofficial direct talks between his government and theTaliban, who long have refused to negotiate with Ghani’s administration.
Ghani, flanked by his top security advisors, said the decision to releasethe three Taliban prisoners had been “very hard and necessary”.
His announcement came one day after Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence(ISI) agency chief Faiz Hameed met with Afghanistan’s national securityadviser Hamdullah Mohib in Kabul.
“They talked about improving the relation between the two countries,”Afghanistan’s national security council spokesman Kabir Haqmal said.
Pakistan has long been accused of supporting the Taliban, a charge itdenies. The Haqqani network was described by US Admiral Mike Mullen in 2011as a “veritable arm” of Pakistani intelligence.
– ‘Seriously ill’ –
In August 2016, gunmen wearing military uniforms kidnapped two professorsof the American University of Afghanistan in the heart of Kabul.
The two, American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks, later appearedlooking haggard in a Taliban hostage video, with the insurgents going on tosay that King was in poor health.
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A Taliban source in Pakistan told AFP on Tuesday that King had been”seriously ill”, and the insurgents were worried he could die in theircustody.
The elite American University of Afghanistan (AUAF) opened in 2006 and hasattracted a number of faculty members from Western countries.
In a statement, AUAF said it was “encouraged” to hear news of the possiblerelease of the two professors.
“While AUAF is not part of these discussions, we continue to urge theimmediate and safe return of our faculty members who have been held incaptivity, away from their friends and families, for more than threeyears,” the statement read.
The US and the Australian embassies in Kabul declined to provide immediatecomment.
Taliban expert Rahimullah Yusufzai said a prisoner exchange could prove avital confidence-building measure in getting talks back on track betweenthe US and the Taliban.
President Donald Trump in September ended lengthy negotiations amidcontinued Taliban violence, and experts say the US is unwilling to resumetalks without some concession from the Taliban.
“This step will have a big impact on the talks, the hurdles in talks arebeing removed, slowly and gradually,” Yusufzai said.
“It very clearly shows that Americans have decided that they want aresumption of talks with the Taliban.”
The other two Taliban prisoners to be released are: Haji Mali Khan,believed to be the uncle of Haqqani network leader Sirajuddin Haqqani; andAbdul Rashid, said to be the brother of Mohammad Nabi Omari, a member ofthe Taliban’s political office in Qatar. – APP / AFP
