Loya Jirga: No committee opposed Taliban prisoners’ release: Abdullah

Consultative Loya Jirga (CLJ) chairman Abdullah Abdullah on Saturday said no committee of the ongoing jirga had opposed the release of 400 Taliban prisoners but demanded their conditional release.
Addressing reporters here, Abdullah said there was no contradiction over the release of Taliban prisoners within the committees, adding that generally no committee opposed their release.
Without going into more detail, he said: “Majority of the committees have demanded conditional release of Taliban prisoners.”
He said the CLJ decision will be announced today (Sunday) and that after the release of Taliban prisoners, intra-Afghan talks would begin in three days in Doha.
He hoped the Taliban will not come with more conditions and if something like this happened, the people of Afghanistan will take their decision.
The CLJ head rejected the release of any foreign terrorist, saying: “There is no foreigner in these 400 prisoners.”
He said matters related to individual rights were vital and the CLJ offered their suggestions in this regard.
Abdullah said there was consensus on CLJ, but some key political parties leaders were missing and only their representatives were present.
Abdullah warned the Taliban against making any obstacles in the way of this historic opportunity for peace.
Answering a question about whether there are any foreign nationals among the 400 prisoners, Abdullah said: “They are Afghan Taliban, there are no foreign fighters among these 400 prisoners,” he said.
This comes a day after the President Ashraf Ghani in his inauguration speech to the Loya Jirga said that the Taliban have stated they will start direct talks with the Afghan government and civil society faction in three days if these 400 prisoners are released.
Ghani also said that the Taliban have warned of continued bloodshed if these inmates are not released.
Only hours after the start of the Loya Jirga, the US State Department in a statement welcomed the Loya Jirga , saying the Jirga will consolidate national support for peace in Afghanistan and determine the fate of the remaining Taliban prisoners which are a major obstacle to starting the intra-Afghan talks.
“The United States commends the participants of the Loya Jirga to be convened on August 7 to consolidate national support for peace.  We understand that they will decide on the expeditious release of the remaining Taliban prisoners from their list, the last obstacle to the start of intra-Afghan negotiations,” said the statement.
The prisoners were named on a 5,000-member list handed to the government by the Taliban. The Afghan government has so far released 4,600 prisoners on this list but has refrained from releasing the remaining 400. President Ghani on Friday said he does not have the constitutional authority to release the 400 prisoners and, therefore, will convene a Loya Jirga to decide on the inmates.