Gulbuddin Hekmatyar’s Hizb-e-Islami on Wednesday announced that the first group of its prisoners will be released on Friday from Pul-e-Charkhi and Bagram prisons, but by late Friday the prisoners had still not been freed.

“According to our reports, the president has not yet ordered the release, but he will do it in the next day or two,” said Nadir Afghan, a member of Hizb-e-Islami’s media section.

Neither the Hizb-e-Islami commission nor the joint commission assigned to implement the peace deal between government and Hizb-e-Islami commented on the reasons for the delay.  

The spokesman for the joint commission did however say President Ashraf Ghani will send out a decree in the coming days to release Hizb-e-Islami prisoners.

“There is no obstacle in this respect. The president will sign the prisoner release order and the first group of prisoners will be released on Saturday or Sunday,” Ahmad Farzan, spokesman for the joint commission said.

Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a presidential spokesman, meanwhile said government is committed to implementing all articles of the peace deal.

“Government is committed to implementing all parts of the peace accord. We had started the execution of the peace deal and we hope that Hizb-e-Islami also fulfills its commitments,” he said.

Sima Samar, head of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) said on TOLOnews’ Purso Pal current affairs show that the AIHRC is against releasing prisoners of war.

“No one has the right to forgive war crimes and crimes against humanity. Also no one has the right to forgive another person,” said Samar.

Hizb-e-Islami has said in the past that approximately 2,600 of its members are in prisons around the country.