Three Taliban-Linked Militants Remain In Afghan Prison - Presidential Spokesman

Three Taliban-Linked Militants Remain in Afghan Prison - Presidential Spokesman

The Afghan government still has the three high-ranking militants captive and is supervising the exchange process with the Taliban, presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Saturday after fears were voiced that Taliban's hostages may have been killed

KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 16th November, 2019) The Afghan government still has the three high-ranking militants captive and is supervising the exchange process with the Taliban, presidential spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said Saturday after fears were voiced that Taliban's hostages may have been killed.

"The three key members of the Haqqani network, Anas Haqqani, Mali Khan and Hafiz Abdul Rashid, are in the prison of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, as the Taliban have refused the conditions, and the process of exchange of prisoners has been delayed. The prisoner exchange process is under the supervision of the Afghan government and will be decided in the light of national interests and discussions," Sediqqi wrote in his Twitter.

Earlier this week, the Afghan government announced that it would release high-ranking members of the Haqqani insurgent group in exchange for the US and Australian academics who were kidnapped in Kabul, where they worked at the American University, in 2016.

The exchange was ultimately put on hold for unknown reasons. The Taliban have claimed that they refused to hand over the Western hostages while the movement's affiliates remained captive.

The failure of the Kabul-Taliban plan to swap has prompted the head of the lower house of the Afghan parliament Mir Rahman Rahmani to suggest that the Western hostages may not be alive.