KABUL: The Afghan government said on Thursday it would release another 100 Taliban prisoners soon, even though the insurgents have walked out of talks over a comprehensive prisoner swap and dismissed Kabul’s piecemeal freeing of captives as “unacceptable”.

The administration of President Ashraf Ghani on Wednesday released 100 low-risk Taliban prisoners who had vowed never to return to the battlefield, and officials said the same number of insurgents with similar profiles would be set free soon.

Kabul “will release 100 Taliban prisoners today based on their health condition, age and length of remaining sentence as part of our efforts for peace and containment of Covid-19,” Javid Faisal, spokesman for the Office of the National Security Council, said on Twitter.

Taliban spokesman Zabih­ullah Mujahid said the step was inadequate.

Published in Dawn, April 10th, 2020