Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani announce the release of 175 Taliban prisoners

Kabul: Afghan President Ashraf Ghani on Friday announced the release of 175 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture as a five-day summit on peace ended here with a call for an urgent ceasefire and a schedule for a proposed withdrawal of foreign troops from the war-torn country.

The Loya Jirga, or grand assembly, set out its recommendations and urged the government and the Taliban to “announce an immediate and permanent ceasefire with the arrival of Ramadan”, TOLO News reported. Asking the Taliban to shun violence, the council called on the warring groups to begin “intra-Afghan talks”.

Ghani inaugurated the meeting on Monday. It saw about 3,200 ethnic, religious and tribal representatives and politicians from across the country gather in the capital city under heavy security cover. At the end of the five-day consultations, the participants issued a 23-article resolution to Ghani and called on the government, the Taliban, the international community and regional countries to “respect the recommendations of the peace jirga”.

Ghani said that the Peace Jirga resolution will be the action plan and the roadmap for the Afghan government and that all recommendations of the resolution will be implemented. Announcing, the release of 175 Taliban prisoners as a gesture of goodwill towards peace, he called on the Taliban to send their delegation to Kabul or another province of the country to receive them. (IANS)

Also Read: INTERNATIONAL