Afghanistan- Afghan Govt Won't Release Anas Haqqani on Pretext of Peace Talks: ARG

(MENAFN- Daily Outlook Afghanistan) KABUL - The Presidential Palace (ARG) says the Afghan government would not release Anas Haqqani on pretext of the ongoing peace talks with the Taliban militant group.
On February 12, the Taliban announced a new negotiating team consisted of a 14-member negotiating team ahead of peace talks this month with the U.S. special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad.
The negotiating team was headed by Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, a leading negotiator of the armed group. The list also included Anas Haqqani, – son of Jalaluddin Haqqani, leader of the Haqqani network – who is being held in Kabul.
The Taliban said Haqqani should be released to start work on the negotiating team.
However, the president's office deputy spokesman Shah Hussain Murtazawi in Debate program of Ariana News which is due to be broadcasted tonight said that those who have committed crimes against the Afghan people will be dealt with in accordance with the laws of Afghanistan.
Murtazawi said the government would not gift Anas Haqqani to an individual or country in the peace process.
In part of his speech, the president's deputy spokesman described the Taliban chief negotiator Stanikzai as Binge drinking person, satirizing that Stanikzai was giving 'Islamology lessons to the Afghan politicians in Moscow Talks held on Feb. 5.
'Our friends [oppositions], who had been in the government in the past 17 years, did not stand in defense of Ghani's government against Stanikzai. They were defending their own interests, he said.
In reaction, Former Ambassador of Afghanistan to Pakistan Omar Zakhilwal who was also among the participants of Moscow meeting said that they have not received 'lectures in Moscow but delivered lectures to the Taliban.
He stressed that those who attended the Moscow Talks are 'the founders of the current system in the country. (ATN)

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