KABUL (Reuters) – Afghanistan will transfer to Qatar seven prisoners whose release has been demanded by the Taliban ahead of peace talks set to start this week, officials of both warring sides, as well as Western diplomats, said on Thursday.
An Afghan official said the captives would be freed soon, although the government had not wanted to release them on the grounds that they were guilty of killing foreign soldiers.
“They will be shifted to Doha,” he said, adding that top Afghan officials were set to travel to the capital of the Gulf state this week for the talks.
(Reporting by Abdul Qadir Sediqi, Hamid Shalizi in Kabul, Rupam Jain in Mumbai, Charlotte Greenfield in Islamabad; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)
