Taliban say they are readying for intra-Afghan talks

The Taliban leadership council has begun taking proposals from its members in preparation for the start of talks, AP reported citing unnamed Taliban officials.
They cited Taliban leader Hebatullah Akhunzada, who expressed the militant group’s readiness to participate in the talks with Kabul.
The US-Taliban deal had scheduled the intra-Afghan talks to begin on March 10.
Up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners and 1,000 government prisoners are expected to be released before the talks. The government has released 2,710 Taliban prisoners, according to Javid Faisal, spokesman for the national security adviser’s office in Kabul. The Taliban have freed 531 government prisoners.
Suhail Shaheen, however, tweeted that the government freed so far only 2,284 Taliban prisoners.
Meanwhile, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad has met with Taliban and Pakistan leaders in push for starting intra-Afghan talks. He is expected to meet with government officials in Kabul.
Sediq Sediqi, a spokesman for Ashraf Ghani said the president would like to see talks with the Taliban start in one month. However, he did not clarify whether the Afghan government would free the remaining 2,000 plus Taliban prisoners beforehand.