Taliban to visit Bagram jail to identity prisoners for release

Sources told IANS that the decision was taken during the second video conference held between the technical teams of the Afghan government and the Taliban on Wednesday.

Suhail Shaheen, spokesman of Taliban Qatar office, tweeted the video of the conference which lasted for four hours. The conference was also attended by the representatives of Red Cross, the US and Qatar.

The process of the prisoners' release is likely to start on March 31 when the Taliban will send its delegation to Bagram Jail to identify and verify their prisoners as per the list they had given to the US.

Though the peace deal had finalised March 10 as the date for beginning the process, it got delayed because Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani said that they had not made any commitment about the release of 5,000 Taliban prisoners.

Asserting his authority, Ghani had said that the US could not take this decision on his behalf.

Though President Ghani agrees that the release of Taliban prisoners is necessary for initiating the intra-Afghan talks, neither the Taliban nor the Afghan government has so far announced their teams for the dialogue.