Afghanistan's first lady, Rula Ghani, has said that the Taliban group may not release two lecturers of the American University of Afghanistan, whose exchange for Taliban-affiliated key militants was announced earlier this week
KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th November, 2019) Afghanistan's first lady, Rula Ghani, has said that the Taliban group may not release two lecturers of the American University of Afghanistan, whose exchange for Taliban-affiliated key militants was announced earlier this week.The Afghan government had previously announced that it would release one of the senior leaders of the Haqqani insurgent group, Anas Haqqani, as well as key Taliban commanders Hafiz Rashid and Mali Khan, in exchange for US and Australian academics who were kidnapped in 2016. However, on Thursday, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told Sputnik that the prisoner swap was delayed since the Taliban refused to hand over the hostages while their affiliates remained captive.
Ghani said in a speech at the US Institute of Peace in Washington late on Thursday that the release of the three Taliban-affiliated militants was discussed at the peace talks, but the first round was not successful.
US national Kevin King and Australian national Timothy Weeks were kidnapped by the Taliban in 2016 in Kabul, where they worked at the American University.
Anas Haqqani was arrested in 2014 and is the youngest son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, founder of the Haqqani militant network operating under the Taliban's umbrella. Releasing Haqqani was something that the Afghan president formerly pledged to never do.
