UNAMA condemns attacks against civilians engaged in peace efforts

“UNAMA condemns this week’s violence in Kabul, particularly that targeting civilians engaged in peace efforts. The killing of peace activist Abdulbaqi Amin and attack against peace negotiator Fawzia Koofi are deplorable.” the mission said on Twitter. 
This comes after two IED explosions on Wednesday claimed the lives of two civilians, including Abdulbaqi Amin, who was the head of the science council at the Ministry of Education. 
On Tuesday, three civilians were killed in a rocket attack on Kabul and last week, prominent peace negotiator and political activist Fawzia Koofi was shot at. 
She was shot in the hand during the attempted assassination.
The increase in IED explosions in Kabul has raised concerns especially as serious efforts are underway to start intra-Afghan peace talks. 
However, talks that were supposed to have started last week have been delayed due to the prisoner release issue. 
On Wednesday, government said the Taliban prisoner release process has been suspended as the Taliban had not freed all Afghans they are holding captive. 
This came after the United States, France and Australia opposed the release of some of the remaining 320 prisoners who were behind the attacks and death of their nationals. 
In line with this, President Ashraf Ghani has stalled the release process despite having signed a decree last week. 
In an interview with the UK’s Times Radio this week, Ghani said that a number of the controversial prisoners were also major drug kingpins and that should they be released back into society the UK and Europe could expect a flood of drugs to hit their shores.