- Taliban demand release of 7,000 of its prisoners.
- “It is a big demand,” says Afghan govt negotiator Nader Nadery.
- Nadery says women are suffering in districts seized by the Taliban.
The Taliban have demanded the release of 7,000 prisoners as a condition for a three-month ceasefire, revealed a member of the Afghan government negotiator Thursday.
“It is a big demand,” Nader Nadery said, adding that the Taliban have also demanded the removal of the Taliban’s leaders from a United Nations blacklist.
Nadery claimed that women were suffering in the districts that have been captured by the Taliban, adding that they were being threatened by the conservative group.
He said in areas that the Taliban had captured, public buildings had been damaged on a large scale and that the group has halted work on all public development projects.
The Friendship Gate at the Chaman border was closed a day earlier by Pakistan after the Taliban seized the Afghan side in the Spin Boldak district, continuing sweeping gains made by the group since foreign forces stepped up their withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Spin Boldak was the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the Taliban in recent weeks as they look to choke off revenues much-needed by Kabul while also filling their own coffers.
Afghanistan’s interior ministry has denied the Taliban have taken the area even as social media was flooded with pictures of the group’s fighters relaxing in the frontier town.
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