Taliban offer three-month ceasefire in return for prisoner release, says Afghan negotiator

The Taliban have offered a three-month ceasefire in exchange for the release of thousands of insurgent prisoners, a top Afghan government negotiator said on Thursday, as Pakistan confirmed the group had seized control of a key border crossing. Nader Nadery, the spokesman for the government’s negotiating team in Doha where peace talks with the Taliban have been stalled for months, said it was a “big demand”. “The Taliban has offered a plan for a three-month ceasefire, but in exchange they have asked for the release of 7,000 of their prisoners and the removal of their leaders from the UN blacklist,” he told reporters in Kabul. A spokesman for the Taliban said he was only aware of the suggestion of a ceasefire over the forthcoming Eid al-Adha holiday. The Taliban is waging a relentless campaign across Afghanistan with the United States and Nato troops almost all but gone from the country, leaving Afghan forces facing crisis. Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed on Thursday that the Afghan side of the Chaman border crossing was in the hands of the Taliban. The border was closed on Wednesday by Pakistan officials after the Taliban seized Spin Boldak on the other side and raised insurgent flags above the town. “An unruly mob of about 400 people tried to cross the gate forcefully. They threw stones, which forced us to use tear gas,” said a security official on the Pakistan side, who asked not to be named, adding that the situation was later brought “under control”. He said around 1,500 people had gathered at the border on Wednesday waiting to cross. George W. Bush says Afghanistan pull-out a ‘mistake’ as Taliban capture key border crossing with Pakistan An Afghan Taliban source told Agency France-Presse that hundreds of people had also gathered on the Afghan side, hoping to travel in the other direction. “We are talking to Pakistani authorities. A formal meeting to open the border is scheduled for today, and hopefully, it will open in a day or two,” he said. Later on Thursday, a Pakistani border official said the border would open on Friday for pedestrians from both sides. The crossing provides direct access to Pakistan’s Balochistan province – where the Taliban’s top leadership has been based for decades – along with an unknown number of reserve fighters who regularly enter Afghanistan to help bolster their ranks. A major highway leading from the border connects to Pakistan’s commercial capital Karachi and its sprawling port on the Arabian Sea, which is considered a linchpin for Afghanistan’s billion-dollar heroin trade that has provided a crucial source of revenue for the Taliban’s war chest over the years. Islamabad on Thursday announced it had invited a number of “Afghan leaders” to a peace conference over the weekend, but an aide to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani told local media his government had asked for it to be postponed, with politicians already heading to Qatar. As deadly Taliban advance continues, few Afghans have truly ‘fallen’ Spin Boldak is the latest in a string of border crossings and dry ports seized by the insurgents in recent weeks as they look to choke off revenues much needed by Kabul while also filling their own coffers. “The bazaar is closed and traders are scared that the situation will turn bad,” Mohammad Rasoul, a trader in Spin Boldak, told Agence France-Presse by phone. “They fear that their products will be looted. There are scores of opportunists waiting to loot.” Muska Dastageer, a lecturer at the American University of Afghanistan, said any Taliban ceasefire offer was likely an attempt by them to consolidate the positions they have gained so swiftly in recent weeks. “A ceasefire now would effectively prohibit [Afghan forces] from retaking the crucial border points which Taliban have captured recently,” she tweeted. “I think the timing of this ceasefire offer has more to do with their wish to consolidate power over these areas.” Last year, the government released 5,000 Taliban prisoners as part of an exchange with the Kabul government that helped launch peace talks in Qatar. “Their release did not bring peace. Instead most of them are now fighting government forces,” said Kabul resident Ahmad Jawed. The negotiations have so far failed to reach any political settlement, and the latest offensives suggest the insurgents are now set on a military victory.