By Our Diplomatic
Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday welcomed the Afghan Loya Jirga’s recommendation to release remaining 400 prisoners, hoping the step would pave way for early commencement of intra-Afghan negotiations.
After three-day debates, Afghan Loya Jirga, an assembly of elders, chieftains and notables, Sunday recommended the Afghan government to release 400 Taliban prisoners. The release of prisoners is part of the US-Taliban peace deal inked on February 29 in Doha to facilitate the intra-Afghan dialogue. The Afghan government has already released 4,600 inmates.
“We hope that with implementation of this step relating to the prisoners’ release, as envisaged in the US-Taliban Peace Agreement, the intra-Afghan negotiations will commence at the earliest,” Foreign Office Spokesperson said in a statement.
Pakistan has repeatedly emphasized that Afghan leaders must seize this historic opportunity and work together constructively through intra-Afghan negotiations to secure a comprehensive, broad-based and inclusive political settlement in Afghanistan. The spokesperson urged the international community to reinforce its support for the success of intra-Afghan negotiations for sustained and durable peace and stability in Afghanistan.
“For its part, Pakistan has consistently supported an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process. Pakistan’s positive contribution to the process is internationally recognized,” he resolved.
Pakistan reaffirms its support for a peaceful, stable, united, democratic, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan, at peace with itself and with its neighbours.
Earlier, last week Ghani invited some 3,200 Afghan community leaders and politicians to Kabul amid tight security and concerns about the COVID-19 pandemic, to advise the government on whether the prisoners should be freed. Among the 400 are Taliban members accused of major attacks against civilians and foreigners, including a 2017 truck bombing near the German embassy in Kabul that killed more than 150 – the deadliest attack in the 19-year insurgency. Taliban and official sources have told Reuters the group includes members of the militant Haqqani network, which has ties to the Taliban.
With the release, the Afghan government will fulfil its pledge to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners.
Talks between the warring Taliban and government will start in Doha this week, Western diplomats said. Ghani appealed to the hardline Islamist group to pledge to a complete ceasefire ahead of talks. The Taliban have not commented on the decision to release the remaining prisoners. Deliberation over the release of last batch of Taliban prisoners, accused of conducting some of the bloodiest attacks across Afghanistan, had triggered outrage among civilians and rights groups who questioned the morality of the peace process. It has also proved wrenching for the families of the more than 100,000 Afghan civilians thought to have been killed or injured in the past decade, more than 10,000 last year alone. The Loya Jirga had urged the government to seek forgiveness from the families for their killers, important under many interpretations of Islamic law. Sunday’s decision caps more than five months of fitful talks after Washington and the Taliban agreed on the release of the Taliban prisoners as a condition for the talks with Kabul.
U.S. officials had encouraged the Loya Jirga in recent days to support the release of the prisoners despite the drawbacks in order to get the peace process moving. Neighbouring Pakistan, seen as key to helping pave the way to talks, welcomed Sunday’s decision.
“We hope that with implementation of this step relating to the prisoners’ release, as envisaged in the U.S.-Taliban Peace Agreement, the Intra-Afghan Negotiations will commence at the earliest,” Pakistan’s foreign office said in a statement. Ahead of the Loya Jirga, Human Rights Watch cautioned that many of the prisoners had been jailed under “overly broad terrorism laws that provide for indefinite preventive detention”.
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