Afghan govt releases 100 prisoners after Taliban walk out of talks

The intra-Afghan talks might be back again. Kabul has finally agreed to release a hundred prisoners on Wednesday, after the Taliban threatened to cancel talks with the government. This was the second such threat in the past month.

“One hundred Taliban prisoners will be released today,” Javid Faisal, the spokesperson for Afghanistan’s Office of the National Security Council has been quoted as in agencies.

On Tuesday, Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen tweeted: “Prisoners of the Islamic Emirate should be released long before..as per the signed agreement and paved the way for intra Afghan negotiations. But the relevant sides are deliberately delaying our prisoners’ release and thus violating the peace Agreement.” Shaheen then tweeted that the ‘IEA’ recalls, with immediate effect, its technical team from Kabul.

The decision to release the prisoners would have come under considerable pressure from America. Two weeks ago, the US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Kabul to make it clear that the America was serious about pulling out.  Secretary Mike Pompeo expressed “disappointment” in Kabul’s inability to come to a compromise between President Ashraf Ghani and his rival Abdullah Abdullah who has formed a parallel government. “Their failure has harmed US-Afghan relations,’’ a press statement issued by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo read.

In stern warning to the government, the US also cut assistance by $1 billion this year -and is prepared to do again next year. The message was clear: The US was choosing to side with the Taliban.

The prisoner exchange was the first part of the US-Taliban agreement. However, it ran into trouble immediately as President Ashraf Ghani’s public declaration to release them as a pre-condition for the intra Afghan talks. The Taliban, well aware of how keen America is to get out of the country, chose to call off the truce less than 48 hours after the agreement was signed.

The Afghan government will not release 15 commanders as yet, reports suggest. The rest of the prisoners will be realised after the Taliban later, after waiting and watching what the Taliban will do.

Calling off the intra-Afghan talks over prisoner release has been a favourite tactic with the Taliban. While the Taliban had specified that 5,000 have to be released up front, the Afghan government has been resisting with all its might. Also, this is the only part of the deal that the Afghan government controls.

However, the Taliban seems to be in a position of power. It helps that the Afghan political spectrum is divided. Taking advantage, the Taliban is asserting its influence beyond just the exchange. Taliban even had an objection to the names on the negotiating team that had been put up—united for once—by Afghanistan. And the road to the talks will be a long and difficult one.