Taliban bristle over picks for prisoner swap

KABUL－The Afghan government has released the first batch of 100 Taliban prisoners, claiming they were among 5,000 detainees to be freed under a deal between the insurgents and the United States. But the Taliban said they have yet to verify if those released were on the list they handed over to Washington during the negotiations.

The freed prisoners had passed through a biometric registration process and made written commitments guaranteeing they would not return to the battlefield, according to local media.

The prisoner release is a critical first step to intra-Afghan negotiations aimed at bringing an end to decades of war in Afghanistan. The US-Taliban deal signed in February also calls for the Taliban to free 1,000 government personnel they hold hostage.

Jawed Faisal, spokesman for Afghanistan's National Security adviser, said the 100 were released from the base in Bagram, near Kabul, on Wednesday.

Taliban political spokesman Suhail Shaheen said the group doesn't know who the government is releasing without verification. He said the Taliban withdrew a technical team to oversee the releases because of delays by the government. In a tweet, Shaheen admonished the government for refusing to release the first 15 Taliban fighters they requested who were on the list.

"They should be released based on our list," he said. The list of Taliban and government personnel to be released were part of the negotiations that led to the signing of the US-Taliban peace deal.

In recent days, Washington expressed its frustration with the political turmoil in Kabul as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and his rival in last year's presidential polls squabble over power sharing amid allegations of fraud.

The Afghan government said it would release another 100 Taliban inmates late on Thursday.

Harsh statement

Earlier this week, the US State Department's Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs tweeted a harsh statement expressing frustration at the continued political turmoil roiling in Kabul.

The State Department tweeted: "As the world gets slammed by COVID-19, with devastating economic consequences for all, donors are frustrated and fed up by personal agendas being advanced ahead of the welfare of the Afghan people."

Afghanistan has imposed a lockdown in several cities to curb the spread of the virus.

Meanwhile, at least seven Afghan civilians were killed when the Taliban attacked security forces in northern Balkh Province, local officials said on Wednesday.

On Thursday, five rockets hit a US air base in Afghanistan, but there were no casualties. No militant group has claimed responsibility.

Agencies - Xinhua