BAGRAM, Afghanistan: Afghan authorities Tuesday freed hundreds more Taliban prisoners, as calls grew for the Taliban to extend a ceasefire on its third and final day.
The historic pause in fighting – only the second in nearly 19 years of war – has mostly held across Afghanistan, providing a rare respite from the conflict´s grinding violence. Authorities said they planned to release about 900 Taliban prisoners across Afghanistan on Tuesday, approximately 600 of them from the notorious Bagram jail near Kabul.
The release is part of a pledge by the Afghan government to free up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners in response to the Taliban´s three-day ceasefire offer, which began Sunday to mark the Eidul Fitr.
Abdul Wasi, 27, from Kandahar province, much of which is under the Taliban control, said he was a "holy warrior" when he was detained eight years ago. "I was told ... to do jihad until all foreign troops are driven out of our country," Wasi, sporting a long beard and wearing a traditional baggy shirt-and-trouser shalwar kameez, told AFP moments after he was freed.
He said he was happy about the US-Taliban deal paving way for all foreign forces to quit Afghanistan by May next year, and that he wanted a permanent ceasefire. "If the foreign troops exit, we won´t fight," he said as he boarded a Kabul-bound bus along with other freed Taliban members.
The prisoners had signed written pledges not to return to the battlefield, but Qari Mohammadullah, another freed inmate, vowed to continue fighting if foreign forces remain in Afghanistan.
"We don´t want foreigners to stay any longer in our country, they must leave immediately," Mohammadullah said. "We will continue our jihad until every single foreign force leaves." Each freed inmate was given the equivalent of about $65 in Afghan currency. The exact number of prisoners to be released Tuesday could vary subject to legal procedures, National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal told AFP.
He said authorities hoped the Taliban would extend the ceasefire so delayed peace talks could commence. "If the Taliban are ready to extend the ceasefire, we are ready to continue the ceasefire too," Faisal told a news conference.
"We hope they release our prisoners so that intra-Afghan peace talks begin as soon as possible... The future depends on the Taliban´s next move," he said. A senior Taliban member told AFP the group planned to release about 200 Afghan security force members, without specifying when.
The ceasefire has raised hopes of an extended truce that could pave the way for long-awaited peace talks between the Taliban and Afghan government.
"Extend the ceasefire. Save lives," Shaharzad Akbar, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission, said on Twitter.
"End the violence so that we can all focus on making services available to the most vulnerable across the country, on expanding access to human rights, so that we have space to breathe." Another senior Taliban source told AFP the group could extend the ceasefire by seven days if the government speeds up the release of prisoners.
However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said he had no information about an extension. The US-Taliban deal stipulates the Afghan government would release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and the militants would free about 1,000 national security personnel.
Prior to this week´s releases, Kabul had already freed about 1,000 Taliban inmates, while the insurgents released about 300 Afghan security force captives. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, while welcoming the latest developments, has insisted that freed Taliban prisoners should not return to the battlefield.
President Ashraf Ghani has said his administration is ready to begin peace negotiations -- which had originally been scheduled to start by March 10 -- seen as key to ending the war in the impoverished country.
Before the ceasefire started the Taliban claimed multiple deadly attacks against Afghan forces across the country. But they denied carrying out a gruesome rampage in a maternity hospital in Kabul earlier this month when gunmen shot dead mothers, nurses and newborns.
The US first built the Bagram detention centre early in the war and it gained international notoriety after details emerged of prisoner abuse. The Afghan military now runs the facility.
Meanwhile, China Tuesday welcomed the release of Taliban prisoners and reduction in fighting and violence in Afghanistan and said it was conducive to promoting intra-Afghan dialogue and realizing peace and stability.
"The Afghan people's aim for peace and cessation of violence are more than anything," Chinese Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson Zhao Lijian said during his regular briefing while commenting on the release of Taliban prisoners. He said reduction in fighting and violence was also a shared aspiration of the regional countries and the international community.
"It is conducive to promoting intra-Afghan dialogue and realizing peace and stability," he added. The spokesperson reiterated that China stood ready to work with the international community to offer support and assistance to peace and reconciliation process in Afghanistan.
Yesterday, Afghanistan National Security Council's spokesperson said the Afghan government had released 100 Taliban prisoners on May 25. He also announced that the prisoners release would continue in batches of 100 daily until 2,000 prisoners were freed hoping it would eventually lead to a lasting peace in war-torn Afghanistan.
A US-Taliban deal signed in February stipulated that the Afghan government would release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners while the Taliban would free about 1,000 Afghan security force personnel.
The prisoner swap is seen as a confidence-building move ahead of long-awaited peace talks between the government and Taliban. According to the sources, the three-day ceasefire between the Afghan government and Taliban on Eid ul Fitr holidays will be extended for another week.
