...mindless ferocity in a turban...prisoners placed in durance vile
Into the paddy wagon wit' yez!
in Afghanistan as
They know a prisoner release is a key pillar of any agreement that brings an end to Afghanistan's 18-year war, Washingtons longest military engagement.
A list of about 5,000 Taliban prisoners has been given to the Americans and their release has been written into the agreement under discussion, said a Taliban official familiar with the on-again, off-again talks taking place in Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the media. US and Afghan government officials have said a prisoner release is part of the negotiation.
But some analysts say freeing prisoners could undermine peace in Afghanistan.
"There's a need for Afghan and US officials to do their due diligence on any Taliban prisoners they're planning to release, in order to minimise the likelihood that they'll set free jihadists that can do destabilising things and undercut a fledgling grinding of the peace processor," warned Michael Kugelman, deputy director of the Asia Program at the US-based Wilson Center.
The News Agency that Dare Not be Named interviewed more than a dozen Taliban prisoners inside the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi prison on the eastern edge of the capital, Kabul. Several of them were nostalgic for the Taliban's Afghanistan, ruled by the mighty hand of their previous leader, the reclusive one-eyed Mullah Mohammed Omar, who died several years ago.
But they also insisted that they accept it would not be the same now and that, though they still wanted what they call Islamic rule, they no longer call for some of their strict edicts, like the ban on education and on girls and women working.
"We want women to be educated, become engineers, we want women to work in every department," said one prisoner, Maulvi Niaz Mohammed, though he said the work must be "based on Islam". He said young Afghans should not fear the Taliban, "it is they who will build our country and develop it".
Taliban negotiators have taken a similar tone in the talks. But there is a deep distrust on both sides of the conflict and many in the public worry what will happen if the Taliban, who ruled for five years until they were toppled in the 2001 US-led invasion, regain authority.
On Sunday, the Taliban ruling council agreed to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the US can be signed, Taliban officials said. They didn't say when it would begin.
The Taliban have well-organised communication networks inside Afghan prisons that record the latest arrests, province by province, as well as who is sick and who has died. It all gets delivered to a prisoners commission, devoted to their release and headed by Mullah Nooruddin Turabi, who during the Taliban rule served as justice minister and the virtue and vice minister in charge of
| Khaama Press adds: |
Every past attempt at re-integration has been costly and a failure.