Taliban vows to release remaining government prisoners by Eid

“The other side should also complete process of the release of 5000 prisoners as per the Doha Agreement and according to the list already provided in order to pave the way for the inception of intra-Afghan negotiations,” Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for Taliban’s political office in Qatar, said on Twitter.
Taliban has released over 900 government prisoners so far as part of their deal with the United States signed in February.
Disagreements over the prisoner exchange and the violence have delayed intra-Afghan peace talks, which had been expected to begin on March 10 as per the deal.
The government has released 4,400 Taliban prisoners so far and on Tuesday President Ashraf Ghani vowed to soon complete the process.
On Wednesday, US Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad met with President Ghani and briefed him about his latest talks with the Taliban, a statement from Ghani’s office said.
The sides also discussed extension of the three-day Eid ceasefire or adopting reduction in violence after it, starting direct talks between the government and the Taliban and prisoner exchange process, according to the statement.