Almost a week after the Afghan government released at least 400 Taliban prisoners out of 887 inmates to be released in the near future, Chief Executive of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, said he hopes the move will be a gesture of goodwill, not an election campaign.
Earlier this month, President Ghani announced to release 887 Taliban prisoners as per the demand of the Loya Jirga delegates.
“The release of Taliban prisoners is a goodwill gesture, but it will lose its actual impact if it takes the form of an [election] campaign,” Abdullah said at the Council of Ministers meeting on Monday.
“We don’t want thousands of people to live in prisons for lifetime or war to continue considering the fact that Afghans have been suffering from war for 40 years,” Abdullah said.
Abdullah also said that the peace process does not belong to a person, but it is the will of the people of Afghanistan.
“Afghans want peace and a healthy representation should be made of the will of the people of Afghanistan,” said Abdullah, who recently mentioned that the Taliban is the main hurdle on the way of peace efforts in the country.
Abdullah expressed his concern and said the outcome of the peace process was against people’s expectations but added the interest of the region and international community regarding peace and stability in the country had increased.
He hoped regional countries would bring pressure on Taliban militants in order the ongoing peace efforts gave a positive income.
He termed regional conscience a must for the peace process and said no one could bring peace to the country individually.
He urged all security organs and related institutions to cooperate with the Independent Election Commission (IEC) during the ongoing voter registration process.
