As a way to pave the way to talks between the Taliban and Afghanistan government, President Ashraf Ghani will sign a decree to release 1,500 Taliban prisoners. The president's spokesperson said that the government plans to gradually release 5,000 prisoners starting this week if incidents of violence in the country will reduce significantly.
The Afghan government has been seeking to resolve the dispute that delayed peace talks between the militants and Kabul. While talks were on with the US to establish peace, the insurgent group had been refusing to talk with the Afghanistan government stating that it is merely a puppet of the US.
President Ghani's spokesperson announced the release of Taliban prisoners hours after the US said its forces had started pulling out of two bases in Afghanistan, in line with a deal signed between Washington and the Taliban in Doha last month aiming to end America's 18-year-old war.
The government will "release 1,500 Taliban prisoners as a gesture of goodwill" starting Saturday, with another 3,500 to be freed after negotiations begin, spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter.
As per the two-page decree, the Taliban will have to provide "a written guarantee to not return to the battlefield".
"President Ghani has signed the decree that would facilitate the release of the Taliban prisoners following an accepted framework for the start of negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghan government," Ghani's spokesman Sediq Sediqqi posted on Twitter.
Negotiations between Taliban and Kabul were delayed as the militant group demanded as a prerequisite the prisoner release in exchange for 1,000 captives.
Ghani had refused but Wednesday's decree signalled a softening of his stance. After the initial release of 1,500 prisoners, 500 prisoners will be released every two weeks. A member of the Taliban's leadership council said the group had delivered a list of the 5,000 captives they wanted the Afghan government to release.
Ghani's decree on Wednesday said that "prisoners will be released based on their age, health status and the remaining jail term". The Taliban, however, was critical of this provision.
The agreement, which will initially see 100 prisoners freed each day, will depend on the Taliban's willingness to significantly limit attacks in the country, he added.
The decision attempts to resolve one of the long-running spats that have stymied potential peace talks between the insurgents and the Afghan government.
Although the Taliban were due to start talks with Kabul on Tuesday, negotiations were delayed because the insurgents' demanded as a prerequisite the prisoner release in exchange for 1,000 captives.
US negotiator Zalmay Khalilzad welcomed the announcement and urged the Afghan government and the Taliban to meet "immediately" in Qatar to sort out prisoner details.
The State Department voiced confidence that Afghan peace talks would open soon, saying Ghani was speaking to rivals and would name a negotiating team "in the coming few days."
The UN Security Council on Tuesday endorsed the US-Taliban deal, a rare step for an agreement involving insurgents. The US State Department also seemed confident that Afghan peace talks will open 'in the coming few days'.
As per provisions of the US-Taliban deal, security guarantee by the Taliban will be a premise based on which, foreign forces will quit Afghanistan in the coming 14 months. Under the US-Taliban deal, the militants are to prevent groups including Al-Qaeda from using Afghanistan as a base to threaten the security of the US and its allies.
The US, which currently has 8,600 troops in the country, have started leaving one base in Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province in the south, and another base in Herat in the west.
Helmand is where US and British forces fought some of the bloodiest campaigns of the 18-year war.
The Taliban ahead of the initial drawdown saw themselves as been victorious over America. They, however, ramped up attacks since halting a week-long partial truce, till the Doha accord was signed. This brings respite to Afghan nationals who have long borne brunt of the deadly violence.
US general, Kenneth McKenzie, said the Islamist extremist Taliban have been "very effective" against the Islamic State group in Nangarhar province over the last few months.
There was no immediate reaction from the insurgents to Ghani's decree on the prisoners, which followed a deepening political crisis in Kabul.
