ISLAMABAD: Three Indian engineers held by the Taliban in Afghanistan since May 2018 have been freed by the militant group in exchange for 11 of its top mem¬bers from Afghan jails, according to
media reports on Monday.
The release of three of the five Indian hostages follows key meet¬ings between US Special Repre¬sentative for Afghanistan Recon¬ciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Taliban representatives led by
Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar in Islamabad during the weekend.
Two Taliban officials told Radio Free Europe/Radio Lib¬erty on Sunday that the swap took place earlier in the day, but they did not disclose the location.
The officials spoke on condi¬tion of anonymity, citing what they described as the sensitive na¬ture of the issue.
The Taliban officials refused to say whether the freed Taliban members were being held by Af¬ghan authorities or US forces in Afghanistan.
The Taliban were reportedly released from one of Afghani¬stan’s largest jails at the Bagram military base, north of the capi¬tal, Kabul, the Associated Press reported.
While the US troops years ago handed over the sprawling base to Afghan security forces, it still maintains a military presence at Bagram. It was not clear whether the US or Afghan forces released
the Taliban.
Both Afghanistan’s defence ministry and the president’s of¬fice declined to comment on the developments, the report said.
Seven Indian engineers and their Afghan driver were abduct¬ed in the first week of May, 2018 in the Bagh-e-Shamal area of north¬ern Baghlan Province where they were working on an electricity
sub-station.
The Indians were working for KEC, a global infrastructure engineering, procurement and construction company of RPG En¬terprises.
No group has claimed respon¬sibility for their abduction.
One of the seven Indian hos¬tages was released in March.
The identities of the released hostages were not disclosed by the militant group, The Express Trib¬une newspaper quoted the report by Radio Free Europe/Radio Lib¬erty as saying.
PTI

Press Trust of India