Javid Faisal, a spokesman for the National Security Council, on Thursday said that 100 more Taliban prisoners will be released today.

"based on their health condition, age and length of remaining sentence," as part of "efforts for peace and containment of COVID-19," he said.

Following weeks of delays, the Afghan government on Wednesday announced the first release of 100 Taliban prisoners, a move expected to be a step closer to intra-Afghan talks.

The Office of the National Security Council in a statement on Wednesday said the release was the fulfillment of a recent decree made by Ashraf Ghani.

"Pursuant to Ghani’s decree of March 11, the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan released 100 Taliban prisoners today based on their health condition, age and length of remaining sentence as part of our efforts for peace and containment of COVID-19," the Office of National Security Council said in a statement on Wednesday.

"The 100 prisoners were on the broader list that the Taliban technical team shared and discussed during meetings with the technical team of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan in Kabul," said the statement by the Office of the National Security Council.

This comes after Waheed Omar, a top advisor to Ghani, on Tuesday said that the release of Taliban prisoners is a time-consuming process and there is no need to panic.

He said that the Afghan government remains committed to the prisoner swap with the Taliban, but in order to make this happen, there is a need for good intentions from both sides about the issue.

Earlier, a three-member delegation from the Taliban arrived in Kabul to discuss the issue of the Taliban’s prisoners.

But the Taliban’s spokesman Suhail Shaheen tweeted on Tuesday that the "technical team will not participate in fruitless meetings with relevant sides starting from tomorrow."

The prisoner release is a step outlined in the US-Taliban deal signed in Doha on February 29 and is intended to be a confidence-building measure to pave the way for the intra-Afghan talks.

SOURCE: Tolonews

LINK: https://www.ansarpress.com/english/15627

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