1,500 Taliban prisoners to release by Afghanistan soon

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani is set to release as many as 1,500 Taliban prisoners in the coming days to pave the way for the start of direct talks with the Taliban aimed at ending the 18-year-long war in the country.

Reportedly,  all released Talibanprisoners will have to provide "a written guarantee to not return to thebattlefield."

The decree lays out details about how the prisoners will be released in asystematic manner, a process that it says will begin in four days.

A Qatar-based spokesman for the Taliban, Mohammed Suhail Shaheen, had said the Intra- Afghan talks that were a key second step of a peace process hinges on the release of Taliban prisoners by the government in Kabul. The release of the prisoners was part of the peace agreement signed by the US and Taliban on 29 February that was to set the stage and pace for a withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan.

According to the Afghan government decree, "The process of releasing 1,500 Taliban prisoners will be completed within 15 days. Talks between the Taliban and the Afghan government to end the war will run parallel with the release of prisoners. If the talks make progress, the government said it will release a further 500 Taliban prisoners every two weeks until a total of 5,000 have been freed".

The decree said the Taliban will have to stick to its commitment to areduction in violence during this period and beyond. It is unsure whether theTaliban will agree to this condition given that two days after the signing ofthe peace deal with the US, the group had said that it would keep up attacks onthe Afghan security forces while sparing the US and other international troops.