Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has issued a decree to release 1,500 Taliban prisoners as a gesture of goodwill before peace talks with the group.
According to the decree, the prisoners will be released within 15 days from coming Saturday. Every day, 100 prisoners will be freed considering their age, health condition and remaining jail term.
Based on the deal between the United States and the Taliban, Afghan government is expected to release 5,000 prisoners while the group is expected to free 1,000 before intra-Afghan talks.
The presidential decree said that 3,500 other Taliban prisoners will be released after the start of talks and with the condition that there will be significant reduction in the level of violence. That process will involve 500 releases every two weeks.
The decree also requires all released Taliban prisoners to provide “a written guarantee to not return to the battlefield.”
US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad urged the Afghan government and the Taliban to sit down “immediately for talks” on the issue of prisoner release in Doha, Qatar to work out the details.
“The Afghan government has agreed to do so. When implemented, this will be a significant step in the peace process,” Khalilzad said on Twitter.
He, however, said that despite these signs of progress, violence by the Taliban remains too high.
“We expect the Taliban to adhere to its commitments to reduce violence in order to allow for the release of prisoners to be implemented smoothly and the peace process to succeed.” Khalilzad said.
