Vice President Amrullah Saleh claimed Sunday that 85 percent of Taliban prisoners who were released as part of the U.S.-Taliban deal have “re-assumed roles in unleashing violence.”
“In a brazen act of noncompliance and defiance to the Doha agreement some 85% of the 5,500 released Taliban have re-assumed roles in unleashing violence and campaign of massacre of civilians,” Saleh said in a tweet.
Saleh stated that the government’s “noble gesture and sincerity wasn’t reciprocated and was seen as weakness.”
The Taliban, however, have frequently rejected such claims.
The group has also shared a list of names of 30 released Taliban inmates, stating that they have either been killed, rearrested, or forced to leave their areas by the government.
Last year, the U.S. and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha to end the 19-year-long Afghan war.
As part of the deal, the 5,500 prisoners released signed a pledge stating they would not return to the battlefields.
In late 2020, Afghan government officials stated that some of the released prisoners had returned to the front line.
So, Foreign Ministry in reference to the UN security council report stated, that the Taliban still have close ties to Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
MoFA announced on Sunday in a released statement that the 27th report of the UN Security Council Watchdog Group on Al-Qaeda, ISIL, and its affiliated groups indicated the Taliban has continued its relations with Al-Qaeda and other “terrorist” groups.
According to the statement, the Taliban’s ties to Al-Qaeda, ISIS, and some other terrorist groups are still intact, and that the killing of several al-Qaeda commanders, including Husam Abd al-Rauf, known as Abu Muhsen al-Masri, in Taliban-controlled areas is the evidence that backs these claims.
The UN Security Council report also noted threats and coordination between the Pakistani Taliban, regional terrorist groups, and the Islamic Jihad group, a group of 100 militants that operate in Faryab and Kunduz provinces, in areas under the Taliban influence, MoFA said in the statement.
Based on these findings, UN-Analytical Support and Sanctions Monitoring Team considers the situation in Afghanistan to be challenging and widely exposed to terrorism, the statement added.
The Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry also called on international partners to uphold Republic’s rightful stand against the Taliban and push the group for a ceasefire and violence reduction.
This comes on the heels of a US treasury report just a few days back, the report indicated that Al-Qaeda with the support of the Taliban is gaining its strengths back and that the Taliban have not cut ties with the group.
