President Ashraf Ghani said his administration was also ready to hold peace talks with the Taliban, seen as key to ending the war in the impoverished country. Pakistan welcomes three-day Eid ceasefire between Taliban, Afghan govt“The government of Afghanistan has today released 100 Taliban prisoners from Bagram prison,” National Security Council spokesman Javid Faisal told AFP. He said the prisoner release was to “help the peace process” and will continue until 2,000 prisoners are freed. Before Sunday’s announcement to free up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners as a “goodwill gesture”, Kabul had already released about 1,000 Taliban inmates while the insurgents had freed about 300 Afghan security force captives. US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has welcomed the ceasefire, but insists the freed Taliban prisoners should not return to the battlefield.

Source: The Express Tribune May 25, 2020 17:44 UTC