The Taliban released 40 more Afghan government prisoners on Thursday, its spokesman said, adding it will accelerate the process to save prisoners from coronavirus.
Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for Taliban’s political office in Qatar, said on Twitter that the new releases happened in northern Kunduz province.
This brings the total number of prisoners released by the Taliban to 100. Earlier, they released 20 prisoners in southern Kandahar province and 40 in eastern Laghman province.
The US-Taliban deal stipulated the release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 Afghan government prisoners by March 10, when intra-Afghan talks were scheduled to begin.
The Afghan government has released 550 Taliban prisoners under a presidential decree that expects release of 1,500 prisoners.
The government has said that the remaining could be freed as intra-Afghan talks begin.
