Free Taliban prisoners
TLTP
ISLAMABAD
Pakistan has welcomed the Afghan Loya Jirga’s recommendation to release the remaining 400 prisoners.
In a statement on Sunday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that Pakistan hopes 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.
He said Pakistan has repeatedly emphasized that the 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 said the international community must also reinforce its support for the success of Intra-Afghan negotiations for sustained and durable peace and stability in Afghanistan.
He said for its part, Pakistan has consistently supported an Afghan-led and Afghan-owned peace and reconciliation process.
Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that Pakistan reaffirms its support for a peaceful, stable, united, democratic, sovereign and prosperous Afghanistan, at peace with itself and with its neighbours.
Earlier in the day, a traditional Afghan council concluded on Sunday with hundreds of delegates agreeing to free 400 Taliban members, paving the way for an early start to negotiations between Afghanistan’s warring sides.
The declaration calls for an immediate start to negotiations as well as an immediate ceasefire. The Taliban have said they were ready for talks immediately after their final prisoners were released and that a ceasefire would be one of the first items of negotiations.
The move looks to bring the United States a little closer to bringing its troops home and end its longest military engagement.
The decision to free the prisoners did not come as a surprise as delegates were urged by the US at the start of the council, or Loya Jirga, on Friday to take “this difficult action” so negotiations could begin to bring an end to the war.
No date has been set but negotiations between Kabul’s political leadership and the Taliban are expected to begin as early as next week and will most likely be held in Qatar, where the Taliban maintains a political office. TLTP
