Afghanistan to swap militants with Taliban in exchange of 2 professors

Afghanistan President, Ashraf Ghani, stated that his country will let go of two senior Taliban commanders and ahead of the Haqqani militant group, Anas Haqqani, in exchange for an American and an Australian professor who was kidnapped in the year 2016. According to reports, the decision to have the swap comes in order to facilitate peace talks between the Afghanistan government and extremist group, Taliban.

An effort to hold face-to-face dialogues

In a public address, Ghani stated that his decision to free the militant prisoners in exchange for both the professors was to hold face-to-face dialogues with the extremist organisation, Taliban. The exchange is coming at a time when attempts were being made to re-start talks between the United States of America and the Taliban. 

According to reports, a representative of the Taliban, stated that the peace talks with the US had hit a dead end after the American officials had demanded the militant organisation to announce a ceasefire and in relation to that a Taliban member had called the demands by the US as unrealistic. In the month of September, US President, Donald Trump, stated that he was ending the peace dialogues with the Taliban after a US official was killed in an attack in Kabul.

Read: China To Host Rare Meeting Between Afghan Govt, Taliban

Taliban orchestrated attacks

At least two civilians were killed and 15 more people were injured after the Taliban attacked a third provincial capital in Afghanistan in less than a week. The attack comes as US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad came back to Qatar for unanticipated talks on a deal that was considered done involving The United States of America and the Taliban. Farah governor Mohammad Shoaib Sabet said that airstrikes had been executed against the militant group.

Read: Pakistan Views Taliban As Anti-India & Friendly Element In Afghan: US

Khalilzad unexpectedly came back to Qatar from Kabul for further talks on September 5 even after he stated that the deal needed the American President's stamp of approval. A few disapproving nods by the government of Afghanistan and the killing of an American Member in the bomb attack on September 5, have increased the level of pressure on the US envoy.

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(With inputs from agencies)