Taliban set to release first prisoners in fragile Afghan exchange

In what appeared some breakthrough in peace process between the Afghan government and the Taliban, the armed group announced on Sunday that it will be freeing 20 prisoners of the Kabul administration in response to the earlier releases of 200 Taliban prisoners.

Suhail Shaheen, the spokesperson for the Taliban's Doha political office, announced this on the Twitter on Sunday following the Afghan government released 200 Taliban prisoners last week.

"Today, 20 prisoners of the Kabul Administration will be released by the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan and handed over to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Kandahar," the Taliban spokesperson stated in a tweet.

This was in the response of the President Ashraf Ghani government's move of freeing 200 Taliban prisoners last week in a bid to encourage the Taliban to comeback to the negotiation table.

The Taliban on April 7 broke off talks with the Afghan government on the prisoners swap, alleging the Ghani administration of delaying tactics in freeing the Taliban prisoners.

As per the February 29, 2020 peace deal between the US and the Taliban, the Afghanistan government is required to release 5,000 Taliban prisoners and in return the Taliban will free 1,000 prisoners of the government as a confidence building measure to initiate the intra-Afghan dialogue.