[ad_1]
Australian Timothy Weeks (left) and US citizen Kevin King appeared dishevelled in video in 2017
The Afghan Taliban have freed two Western hostages in change for 3 imprisoned senior militants, officers and Taliban sources say.
American Kevin King and Australian Timothy Weeks have been launched three years after being kidnapped exterior the American College of Afghanistan in Kabul the place they labored as professors.
The three militants arrived in Qatar from Afghanistan as a part of the swap.
Afghan officers say the deal is geared toward restarting talks with the Taliban.
President Ashraf Ghani stated final week the choice was “a troublesome, however vital” one and a “humanitarian gesture”.
The swap contains Anas Haqqani, a number one determine and fund-raiser within the Haqqani militant group, and two different senior commanders, who had been held in jail by Afghan authorities.
Anas Haqqani’s older brother, Sirajuddin, leads the Haqqani community of fighters and is a deputy chief of the Taliban, which has a political workplace in Qatar.
It’s unclear if they’ve been handed over but to the Taliban.
The destiny of 10 Afghan soldiers who the Taliban are reportedly to free as a part of the deal is unclear, the New York Instances reported.
What occurred to the professors?
The 2 professors of English have been ambushed by gunmen and brought from a car whereas leaving their college campus in Kabul in August 2016.
US Navy Seals tried a rescue mission a number of days later however Mr Weeks, initially from Wagga Wagga in Australia, and Mr King, from Pennsylvania, had been moved on simply hours earlier than.
The pair then appeared in a video, released in January 2017, interesting to then US President-elect Donald Trump to comply with a deal to safe their launch.
On Tuesday, a Taliban supply in southern Afghanistan instructed the BBC the pair had been handed over within the Nawbahar district of Zabul province at 10:00 native time (05:30 GMT).
Media playback is unsupported in your system
In line with a neighborhood police officer, who was concerned within the swap, a 48-hour ceasefire was noticed earlier than the swap. The boys have been then flown away in a US helicopter.
The situation of the 2 males stays unclear, however in his speech final week Mr Ghani famous “their well being has been deteriorating whereas within the custody of the terrorists”.
The American College of Afghanistan stated in an announcement that it “shares the reduction of the households of Kevin and Timothy, and we stay up for offering all of the assist we will” to the 2 males and their households.
Who’re the Taliban prisoners?
Anas Haqqani, Haji Mali Khan and Hafiz Rashid have been despatched to Qatar as a part of the change.
Haqqani is a number one determine within the Haqqani group, a militant group based by his father Jalaluddin Haqqani, and now led by his older brother, Sirajuddin, who can be deputy chief of the Taliban, BBC Urdu’s Riffat Orakzai says.
One other 4 of his brothers been killed in varied safety operations in Pakistan and Afghanistan. The surviving members of the family are in hiding.
The Haqqani community has been behind lots of the co-ordinated assaults on Afghan and Nato forces in recent times and has been blamed for a number of the deadliest blasts within the nation, together with a truck bomb in Kabul in 2017 that killed greater than 150 individuals.
Pakistan has been accused by the West of backing the Haqqani community to counter the affect of arch-rival India in Afghanistan, a cost it denies.
Reuters
Anas Haqqani, pictured in 2014, was flown to Qatar
Anas was arrested in Bahrain in 2014. It’s believed his captors, the People, saved him in a jail within the UAE for a while till he was handed over to the Afghan authorities in Kabul and imprisoned at Bagram air base.
Hafiz Rashid is a senior Taliban commander who was concerned in equipping suicide bombers and helped select their targets, in accordance with The New York Instances. His brother is a member of the Taliban negotiating workforce in Qatar.
Little is thought about Haji Mali Khan, who is alleged to be a senior commander.
What impression may the change have?
It’s hoped the change will enhance efforts to re-start peace talks between the Taliban and the US.
The talks collapsed in September, after President Donald Trump had invited senior Taliban leaders and Afghan president Ashraf Ghani to fulfill at Camp David, close to Washington DC, aiming to finish the US’ longest conflict.
However a Taliban assault within the Afghan capital two days earlier, which killed a US soldier and 11 others, prompted Mr Trump to tug out, saying the group “most likely do not have the ability to barter” in the event that they have been unable to comply with a ceasefire throughout talks.
Mr Ghani stated in a televised speech that the change aimed to “facilitate direct peace negotiations.” Nevertheless, the Taliban have lengthy refused to barter with Mr Ghani’s administration, calling it a puppet of the US.
[ad_2]