The Afghan Taliban has said that it has freed three Indian hostages in exchange for securing the release of 11 Taliban members, including some high-ranking officials, according to an international media report on Monday.

Swap took place on Sunday

The exchange is said to have happened on Sunday. However, the location of the swap is still undisclosed. The officials have not disclosed who the Taliban exchanged the prisoners with and whether the freed Taliban members were being held by Afghan authorities or U.S. forces in Afghanistan. 

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As per the media report, the officials said, the freed Taliban include Sheikh Abdur Rahim and Mawlawi Abdur Rashid, who had served as the group's governors of Kunar and Nimroz provinces respectively during the Taliban administration before it was deposed by U.S.-led forces in 2001.

Seven Indian engineers working for a power plant in Afghanistan's northern Baghlan Province were abducted in May 2018 however no group had claimed responsibility for their abduction.

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The US-Taliban meet

United States Special Representative for Afghanistan, Zalmay Khalilzad met with the Taliban leader in Pakistan on October 4. This is the first meeting since President Donald Trump last month announced the peace deal to end Afghanistan's 18-year war as “dead”. Donald Trump had canceled the peace talks after the Kabul terror attack with killed an American soldier along with 11 people. According to a Pakistani Foreign Ministry official, the meeting occurred for more than an hour. This development was also confirmed by a former member of the group in Kabul who reportedly maintains a friendly relation with Taliban leadership.

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