US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo held a video conference on Monday with the Taliban’s deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The two sides discussed the release of Taliban prisoners and the start of the intra-Afghan talks, Spokesman for the Taliban’s Political Bureau in Qatar Suhail Shaheen said on his twitter.

Based on the US-Taliban agreement, 5,000 Taliban inmates and 1,000 Afghan prisoners must be released from Afghanistan and Taliban detention centers. The Afghan government has so far freed 4,600 Taliban prisoners.

The Afghan government refuses to release the remaining 400 prisoners of the Taliban accusing them of murder, kidnaping and smuggling narcotics.

The Afghan government has called for convening a consultative Loya Jirga to discuss the topic.

Arezo News