Waheed Omar, President Ghani’s senior adviser for public and strategic affairs, on Wednesday said that the Afghan government will not release more Taliban prisoners, and said that previous releases has resulted in more violence.
This comes as the Taliban has demanded the release of 7,000 more prisoners, the removal of the group’s members from the UN blacklist, and the formation of an Islamic system in order to continue the peace talks, according to peace talks.
“We are not in favor of releasing more Taliban prisoners,” Omar said.
The release of over 5,000 Taliban prisoners before was intended to reduce violence as the part of the peace process, Omar said, but “violence has increased because of it.”
In the meantime, Republic negotiator Abdul Hafiz Mansoor on Monday said that the negotiating team has decided that the legitimacy of the war must be discussed with the Taliban before any progress can be made.
He said the talks will not have an outcome until this issue is clarified.
