Afghan government has released 4,518 prisoners in response to the coronavirus, officials said Tuesday.
The prisoners were released based on a presidential decree issued on 26 March that calls for the release of up to 10,000 prisoners over the pandemic.
Afghanistan’s prison affairs authority in a statement said that efforts were ongoing to address cases of the remaining prisoners and the number of prosecutors were doubled to speed up the process.
According to the authority, no positive cases were detected in the detention facilities.
Referring to the violence in Paktia prison a week ago, the authority said that no prisoners escaped. It said that three security personnel were killed while four more were wounded in the incident.
It said that inmates at the special narcotics prison were on strike demanding unconditional release, but only 253 of those prisoners could be released based on the decree.
Afghanistan has registered 784 cases of coronavirus and 25 deaths attributed to it.
