The Taliban announced that it had released a third batch of prisoners of Afghan forces in the framework of the implementation of the peace agreement concluded several weeks ago in the Qatari capital, Doha, according to which the Kabul authorities released hundreds of the movement's detainees detained in its prisons.
A Taliban spokesman said that the movement released twenty detainees from the government forces in Laghman province, east of the country, on Friday, bringing the number of released prisoners from the army and police to sixty.
On Thursday, the Taliban released twenty other government forces in Laghman province as well, while the first batch included prisoners who were being held in Kandahar province, southern Afghanistan.
A Taliban spokesman said that those released from the Afghan forces had been given money to move around and new clothes.
In return, the Afghan government released, from early this month, 361 Taliban militants from Bagram prison in Parwan state, north of Kabul, and said it had obtained a pledge from them not to return to the fighting.
It is noteworthy that the Taliban and the United States signed on February 29 in Doha an agreement paving the way according to a timetable for the gradual withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan in exchange for guarantees from the movement.
The agreement provides for the release of about five thousand Taliban prisoners, compared to about a thousand prisoners from government forces.
On the other hand, the Taliban denied responsibility for an attack Thursday north of Kabul that killed six workers outside Bagram base. A spokeswoman for Parwan province attributed to the Taliban the attack by a gunman riding a bike.