The All-Afghan Council of Elders (Loya Jirga) ordered the release from prison of all members of the Taliban movement (banned in Russia). This was reported on Sunday, August 9, by the Afghan TV channel Tolo News.
We are talking about approximately 400 members of the movement.
This decision was made in order to remove obstacles to the start of negotiations between the authorities of the republic and the Taliban, which should begin immediately.
“Most of the delegates spoke in favor of the release of the prisoners in order to ensure lasting peace and stability in Afghanistan,” the publication quotes one of the jirga delegates.
At the same time, prisoners should be released under national and international guarantees that they will never return to violent conflicts. Jirga delegates also called on neighboring countries to work with Afghanistan to achieve peace.
In May, the director of the second department of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Zamir Kabulov, said that Moscow had condemned the latest terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, but the country’s president’s order to renew offensive actions against members of the Russian-banned Taliban movement threatened to become an obstacle to the launch of inter-Afghan talks.
On May 12, two terrorist attacks were carried out in Afghanistan, which killed dozens of people. After that, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani ordered the country’s security agencies to switch to offensive operations against the Taliban.