KABUL: The Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has announced on Tuesday to release of two Taliban leaders and a Haqqani leader in the exchange of release of two foreigners.
According to details, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced Tuesday the conditional release of three high-profile Taliban prisoners in exchange for kidnapped American and Australian professors, in a move to jump-start “direct talks” with the Taliban to end the conflict.
Speaking live on local TV channels in Kabul, Ghani said the decision was taken to bring “peace and stability” to the country.
“In consultations with our international partners, especially the U.S., we have adopted a mechanism and approach to making sure the release of these three men wouldn’t reinforce the … enemy and intensify attacks by them,” he said.
All three prisoners are members of the deadly Haqqani wing of the Taliban and they include Mali Khan, Hafiz Rashid and Anas Haqqani, a younger brother of the Taliban’s deputy leader and the son of the Haqqani network’s founder. They were held in a government detention centre inside Bagram military base.
