KABUL — Afghanistan’s High Council For Peace wants to send a delegation to secure the release of Taliban prisoners held at Guantanamo Bay prison as part of reconciliation efforts, one of its members said Tuesday.Arsala Rahmani, head of the Council’s prisoner release committee, said the delegation would call for figures including Khairullah Khairkhwa, a top Taliban commander detained at the US-run prison in Cuba since 2002, to be freed. Rahmani added that Khairkhwa’s US lawyer had emailed the High Council For Peace calling for his freedom and offering the jailed militant’s help to broker peace with the Taliban.
Karzai backs the plan to visit Guantanamo, Rahmani added.
“We are determined to send this delegation. That is our decision but so far, we have not contacted the US government,” he told AFP.
If the visit is made, the delegation will “seek the release of all Afghans detained there,” he said.
Rahmani added: “We’ll be seeking the release of all Afghans who are detained inside and outside Afghanistan” in connection with Taliban activities.
There are thought to be around 15 Afghans currently detained at Guantanamo.
Responding to the comments, the US embassy in Kabul said in a statement that it supported the High Council for Peace’s work. But it added: “Transfers or releases of Afghan nationals detained at Guantanamo are conducted in accordance with the results of a comprehensive US government inter-agency review of the status of detained individuals.”