The first phase of a prisoner exchange between the Afghan government and the Taliban movement began today, Thursday, and the exchange includes the release of 100 Taliban prisoners in exchange for the release of 20 Afghan security personnel, Reuters quoted a senior security official and representative of the Taliban.
This release represents the first step for the exchange of about six thousand prisoners held by the Kabul and Taliban government as part of the confidence-building measures important for the success of the peace agreement between the United States and the Taliban.
Reuters quoted a senior official in the office of Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, who asked not to be named, that "it was decided this morning to release 100 Taliban prisoners in exchange for 20 Afghan security personnel." The official added that the names of those released were sent to the prison authorities.
Although the Taliban confirmed this preliminary number of prisoners, the movement's spokesman, Zabihullah Mujahid, told Reuters that technical matters need some time, indicating that the release of the prisoners may take place tomorrow, Friday or after tomorrow, as the two sides are drafting technical and logistical details to receive Prisoners amid the outbreak of corona virus.
The two sides confirmed that Taliban prisoners would be released from the US-controlled Bagram military base north of the capital, Kabul, but the location of the Afghan security forces' release has yet to be determined.
A Taliban team of three arrived in Kabul on Tuesday to start the prisoner exchange process, and met Afghan officials, despite widespread health isolation to combat the Corona virus after recording 239 HIV infections and 4 deaths in Afghanistan.
And Washington signed with the Taliban, in late February, a peace agreement that would lead to the withdrawal of US and foreign forces from Afghanistan by July next year, provided that the movement holds talks with the Afghan government and adheres to certain guarantees.
The agreement, in which the Afghan government did not participate, stipulated the release of five thousand prisoners for the Taliban in exchange for the movement's release of 1,000 prisoners of its own affiliated with the Afghan government.
The exchange was supposed to take place by March 10, when the talks between the two parties were to start, but internal political differences in Kabul postponed the release of prisoners, and some areas of the country witnessed sporadic violence in which Afghan security personnel were killed.