CEO hopes prisoners release is not an election campaign

Monitoring Desk

KABUL: Almost a week after the Afghan government released at least 400 Taliban prisoners out of 887 inmates to be released in the near future, Chief Executive of Afghanistan, Abdullah Abdullah, said he hopes the move will be a gesture of goodwill, not an election campaign.

Earlier this month, President Ghani announced to release 887 Taliban prisoners as per the demand of the grand Jirga delegates.

“The release of Taliban prisoners is a goodwill gesture, but it will lose its actual impact if it takes the form of a [election] campaign,” Abdullah said at the Council of Ministers meeting on Monday.

Abdullah also said that the peace process does not belong to a person, but it is the will of the people of Afghanistan.

“Afghans want peace and a healthy representation should be made of the will of the people of Afghanistan,” said Abdullah, who recently mentioned that the Taliban is the main hurdle on the way of peace efforts in the country. (TOLOnews)