President Ghani said that the negotiations were made in close cooperation with the US with the “aim of facilitating direct talks with the Taliban” for a peace settlement.

It was a “tough but important decision,” Ghani said, which was influenced by the “critical” poor health of the two hostages from the American University in Afghanistan. “In our indirect talks with the Taliban, we asked for their release,” Ghani said.

Some say the prisoners should be put to death, not released. Others are concerned that the release will reignite violence, which Wednesday’s Kabul car bomb signals.

In this episode we discuss that the Afghan Government claims that Taliban are a fragmented group; \ If the Taliban are separated, to which part did government hand over the insurgents? And will the handover be effective in starting the peace process?

In this episode, host Noorwali Saeed Shinwarai discusses the topic with the following guests:

Guests:

• Feroz Bashari, Government Media and Information Center Director

• Arif Kayani, spokesman of Mehwar Party

• Ilyas Wahdat, writer