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Reuters
Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday he would sign a decree releasing the prisoners
An Afghan summit of elders has approved the release of 400 Taliban prisoners accused of ‘major’ crimes.
The Loya Jirga said the decision was made to remove a barrier to peace talks between militants and the government.
The Taliban had demanded the release of prisoners whose crimes included attacks on Afghans and foreigners.
It comes as the US announced that its troop level in the country would drop below 5,000 by November.
The Taliban were ousted from power by a U.S. leadership in 2001. The group gradually regained its power to control more territory than at any point since then.
Earlier this year, the US and the Taliban agreed on a peace treaty to end the 19-year-long conflict in Afghanistan. The deal was intended to pave the way for talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, who had previously only agreed to talk to the US.
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U.S. and Taliban negotiators had agreed that 5,000 Taliban prisoners would be released before entering into talks with the Afghan government.
Thousands were released – however, 400 remain in prison. About 150 of them are on death row, according to AFP.
The Loya Jirga said in a resolution that the decision to liberate the 400 was made to “remove an obstacle, allow the beginning of the peace process and an end to bloodshed.”
The decision will now be signed by President Ashraf Ghani.
The release of prisoners has been controversial among some citizens and human rights groups.
Western diplomats told Reuters news agency that talks between the government and the Taliban would begin in Doha this week.
A UN report in February 2019 claimed that more than 32,000 civilians had died in the 19-year war. That same year, President Ghani said more than 45,000 members of the security services have been killed since 2014.
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On Saturday, U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Draper said troops’s levels in Afghanistan would drop to below 5,000 by November.
In an interview with Fox News, he said the Pentagon needed to inform Congress about the plan. He added that it also depended on the question of whether the US “was not threatened by terrorists coming from Afghanistan”.
President Trump said last week that he wanted to reduce troop numbers to 4,000 to 5,000 for the November presidential election.
