APD | Afghanistan agrees to swap militants

By APD writer Rishika Chauhan

Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani announced on Tuesday that they were ready to swap two militants from Taliban and a leader of the Haqqani terror group for American and Australian nationals kidnapped in 2016.

According to experts, the decision to make the exchange has also been made as the Afghanistan government wants to hold direct talks with Taliban, which has boycotted the government.

In a speech shown on television, Ghani said that he was hoping that the decision would lead to “face to face negotiations” with the Taliban.

The two Taliban commanders, Haji Mali Khan and Hafiz Rashid, and Anas Haqqani were arrested in 2014. Anas Haqqani is related to Sirajuddin Haqqani, who leads the Haqqani network, and is second-in-command in Afghanistan’s Taliban.

The US and Australian nationals are both professors. US citizen Kevin King and an Australian Timothy Weeks, were kidnapped from Kabul’s American University of Afghanistan.

According to reports talks between the Afghanistan government officials and the Taliban are scheduled to be held in Beijing later this month.

(ASIA PACIFIC DAILY)