The Afghan government released 55 Hezb-e Islami prisoners on Tuesday under a peace deal signed with the former insurgent group in September 2016, officials said.
Hezb-e Islami was one of the main insurgent groups in Afghanistan before the peace deal with the Afghan government. The group was believed to have had ties to al-Qaeda.
The release of prisoners is part of an immunity clause, Ahmad Farzan, a leading member of the Afghan peace process body which oversees the implementation of the agreement said.
“Thirteen others will be released in the coming days,” Farzan said.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the Head of Hezb-e Islami, gave a speech on Saturday – his first public appearance in nearly two decades – in which he urged backing for the current government and an end to fighting.
The “political prisoners” were released from Pul-e Charkhi prison in the capital Kabul, Bagram prison in central Parwan and a prison in southern Kandahar, Farzan said.
“The Afghan government is committed to implementing all articles of the signed peace deal,” he said.
The peace deal is a major milestone for the Afghan government that has struggled to bring its main insurgent group, the Taliban, to the negotiating table.
According to Farzan, the 55 are part of a list of 488 Hezb-e Islami prisoners provided to the government.
Welcoming the release of the prisoners, Hezb-e-Islami Spokesman Qariburrahman Syeed said 2,500 members of the party, mostly political prisoners, are in government prisons across the country, apart from the list already provided to the state. (dpa/NAN)
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