Ticket to freedom: In Afghanistan's most notorious prison, hundreds of jailed Taliban say they're waiting for a peace deal being hammered out between their leadership and the U.S., hoping to walk free under a prisoner release agreement. By kgannon.
In this Saturday, Dec. 14, 2019, photo, Maulvi Niaz Mohammad, 45, speaks during an interview with The Associated Press inside the Pul-e-Charkhi jail in Kabul, Afghanistan. Thousands of Taliban prisoners jailed as insurgents see a peace deal being hammered out in Qatar as their ticket to freedom. Prisoner release is a key pillar of any agreement the U.S. strikes with the Taliban to end Afghanistan’s 18-year war.
The Associated Press interviewed more than a dozen Taliban prisoners inside the notorious Pul-e-Charkhi jail 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.
On Sunday, the Taliban ruling council agreed to a temporary cease-fire in Afghanistan, providing a window in which a peace agreement with the U.S. can be signed, Taliban officials said. They didn’t say when it would begin. The around 3,000 prisoners classified as Taliban are in their own block. The caution, even fear, felt by the guards and the administrators was unmistakable as they entered the Taliban’s cell block, protected by a phalanx of guards in armored vests and helmets, carrying bulky weapons that fire tear gas shells. Behind them on the dimly lit stairs were another half dozen guards, also in vests and helmets, automatic weapons at the ready.
Maulvi Niaz Mohammad emerged as the leader among the prisoners, although no one identified him as such. He was convicted to 15 years. During the Taliban rule, he served with Qari Ahmadullah, a Taliban intelligence commander who controlled much of northern Afghanistan. One Taliban prisoner who gave his name only as Maulvi Sahab, saying he feared reprisals, said Taliban prisoners were beaten and taunted by guards. Dozens of prisoners were still in prison even after their sentences have been completed, sometimes for one week, one for a year, he said.
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