Saleh claims 85% of freed prisoners have returned to frontline

KABUL (Agencies): Vice President Amrullah Saleh claimed that 85 percent of Taliban prisoners who were released as part of the US-Taliban deal have “re-assumed roles in unleashing violence.” “In a brazen act of noncompliance and defiance to the Doha agreement some 85% of the 5,500 released Taliban have re-assumed roles in unleashing violence and campaign of massacre of civilians,” Saleh said in a tweet.

Saleh stated that the government’s “noble gesture and sincerity wasn’t reciprocated and was seen as weakness.” The Taliban, however, have frequently rejected such claims. The group has also shared a list of names of 30 released Taliban inmates, stating that they have either been killed, rearrested, or forced to leave their areas by the government.

Last year, the US and the Taliban signed an agreement in Doha to end the 19-year-long Afghan war. As part of the deal, the 5,500 prisoners released signed a pledge stating they would not return to the battlefields. In late 2020, Afghan government officials stated that some of the released prisoners had returned to the front line.