The Afghan government will not carry out a planned release of 100 Taliban prisoners on Tuesday, the National Security Council announced on Monday.
“There is no prisoner release happening tomorrow,” National Security Council spokesperson Javid Faisal tweeted.
According to Faisal, during a video conference on Sunday, the third conducted between the two sides, the Taliban had agreed to send a team to Kabul to conduct further discussions with government officials.
The Taliban delegation was supposed to arrive in Bagram prison to verify the militants’ prisoners.
“Their travel was delayed due to technical issues,’’ Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said on Saturday.
On Thursday, both the Taliban and the Afghan government signalled that they are edging closer to a deal related to prisoner releases that formed part of a U.S.-Taliban agreement signed on February.
All sides, including the U.S., said that 100 Taliban prisoners would be released by March 31.
Later the government said that Taliban have not agreed to a ceasefire, instead increasing violence against Afghan forces.
“The release of prisoners is a complex technical and legal process,” Faisal said on Saturday, the day before Taliban’s rejection of the government’s proposed negotiating team.
According to the U.S.-Taliban agreement, up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners should be released ahead of the intra-Afghan negotiations that were planned to start on March 10, but were delayed.
On March 11, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani issued a decree for the gradual release of 1,500 Taliban prisoners ahead of talks.
Another 3,500 Taliban prisoners are to be conditionally released in a second phase.
NAN
