Two Western university lecturers held hostage by Taliban since 2016 have been handed over to foreign forces in Afghanistan's Nawbahar district of Zabul, a Taliban source told Sputnik
KABUL (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2019) Two Western university lecturers held hostage by Taliban since 2016 have been handed over to foreign forces in Afghanistan's Nawbahar district of Zabul, a Taliban source told Sputnik.
In addition, a three-way ceasefire was announced in three districts between Afghan government forces, US-led coalition troops and Taliban fighters.
The information comes hours after a Taliban source told Sputnik that three high-profile Taliban-linked prisoners were flown to Qatar by the Afghan government in anticipation of the exchange.
Meanwhile, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a statement that he had a telephone conversation with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo last night, and assured him that if the Taliban continued to increase violence even after prisoner exchanges, joint action would be taken against them.
The prisoner swap comes one week after an initial exchange attempt fell through for unknown reasons.
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.
