Afghan govt frees 490 Taliban prisoners across country – report

The Afghan government says it has freed 490 Taliban prisoners across the country in a gesture of goodwill as part of efforts to move a stalled peace process forward, AP reported.

Feroz Bashari, government media center chief said on Thursday that the freed Taliban insurgents were either ailing or had less than a year remaining on their prison sentence.

They are part of a group of 887 inmates that President Ashraf Ghani ordered be to freed to mark the Eid-al-Fitr holiday which followed the end of the holy month of Ramadan earlier in June. It was not clear when the remaining prisoners would be released.

US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad is in Kabul, trying to revive peace talks.