...the Pashtun equivalent of men...political front man Suhail Shaheen said on Thursday that the Taliban will be ready for intra-Afghan negotiations immediately after Eidul Azha if the government frees hundreds of their prisoners.Shaheen’s offer came after Afghan government’s refusal to release about 600 Taliban prisoners over what Afghan officials claim their involvement in serious crimes such as drug trafficking, abducting citizens, sexual assault, stoning of women, liquidations, and other human rights
...which are often intentionally defined so widely as to be meaningless...
cases.
The intra-Afghan negotiations were scheduled to start on March 10 under the Taliban-US agreement signed in late February but differences over the release of prisoners delayed the dialogue, which is key to Afghanistan’s future set up.
"The Islamic Emirate is ready to release all remaining prisoners of the other side before the eve of Eidul Azha provided they release our prisoners as per our list already delivered to them. Likely, IEA is ready to begin intra-Afghan negotiations immediately after Eid in case the process of the release of the prisoners is completed," Shaheen said in a twitter post.
Under the US-Taliban agreement, up to 5,000 Taliban would be freed by the Afghan agreement while Taliban would release up to 1000. The government has released over 4,000 Taliban.
Taliban political front man Suhail Shaheen told Daily Times that they have released 861 government’s prisoners until Tuesday.