Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News November 19, 2019 ISLAMABAD – The Taliban freed two Western hostages Tuesday after the Afghan government released three important Taliban prisoners, who were flown to Qatar where the Taliban has a political team. Sources told VOA the hostages, American Kevin C. King, 63, and Australian Timothy J. Weeks, 50, were released
By RFE/RL’s Radio Free Afghanistan June 11, 2019 KABUL — Afghan special forces have rescued 44 people from a Taliban-run prison in the northern province of Baghlan, local officials say. Baghlan district Governor Khanzad Mazlomiyar said on June 11 that civilians and members of the security forces were among those freed during the operation, which
Al Jazeera: Before there was Guantanamo, there was Bagram, a US detention site near its giant airbase in Afghanistan, which came to be synonymous with torture and prisoner abuse. But when the US relinquished control of the prison, now called Parwan Detention Facility, to Afghan security forces in December 2014, Washington renounced responsibility for the men once held there. “The Bagram prison was a melting pot
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty July 17, 2018 A suicide bomber has killed 20 people in northern Afghanistan, including a Taliban commander, an Afghan official says. Abdul Qauom Baqizoi, provincial chief police of the northern Sar-e Pul Province, said the attack took place as village elders met with Taliban officials in the area. No group claimed
Ariana: Sayed Akbar Agha, head of the Council for the Salvation of Afghanistan says a set timetable for withdrawal of foreign forces and the release of Taliban prisoners could pave way for the second ceasefire in the country. He said about 46,000 Taliban members are currently under the government’s captivity, insisting that the release of some of
The Hill: A former Afghan interpreter for U.S. forces is accusing the Afghanistan government of releasing Taliban prisoners “under the table.” Saber Rock spoke with Hill TV’s “Rising” on Tuesday morning, where he was strongly critical of Kabul’s handling of the war against the Taliban. He noted that the American government has spent billions in its war
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty May 31, 2018 Afghan special forces have freed more than 100 prisoners held by the Taliban, including women and children, in an operation in the southern province of Helmand, the military says. Army spokesman Abdul Qadeir Bahadorzai said the early morning operation on May 31 freed 103 people held in two
Press TV January 11, 2018 Afghan President Ashraf Ghani has granted clemency to 75 prisoners loyal to former warlord Gulbuddin Hekmatyar who reached a landmark peace deal with the government in Kabul in 2016. According to Shah Mir Amirpoor, the press officer at the Pul-e-Charkhi detention center east of Kabul, the inmates were released on
Ayesha Tanzeem VOA News April 5, 2017 ISLAMABAD — Almost 20 Afghan inmates in the Pul-i-Charkhi prison, on the outskirts of the capital, Kabul, have sewn their lips shut to protest government policies. They are part of a group of 300 prisoners who are on a hunger strike against a presidential decree denying them the right
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty January 21, 2017 U.S. Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl sought a dismissal of desertion charges against him, saying he cannot get a fair trial now that Donald Trump, who has called him a traitor, is president. Bergdahl’s lawyers submitted a motion to dismiss the case on January 20, the day Trump took