The Eid ceasefire between Afghan forces and the Taliban, which included prisoner exchanges, has yielded hope that all three Indian hostages kidnapped in 2018 will return home soon.
Sources have told The Hindu that negotiations for the release of two hostages have been completed, while Afghan officials are hopeful of resolving issues for the release of the third as well.
A Loya Jirga called by President Ashraf Ghani on August 7 to advise him on the fate of about 400 Taliban convicted of “heinous crimes” could also prove crucial in securing the release, the sources said.
The hostages, Prasadi Mahto and Hulas Mahto from Jharkhand and Mantu Singh from Bihar, were part of a group of seven employees of Indian engineering company KEC International (owned by the RP Goenka group) that was developing a power project in Afghanistan’s Northern Baglan province.
The seven men and their Afghan driver were abducted by a Taliban group in May 2018, who had demanded ransom in payment as well as the release of senior Taliban militants. After negotiations, one of the hostages was released in March 2019 while three others were released in a swap for 11 Taliban militants held by the U.S. forces at the Bagram prison in October 2019.
Officials would not confirm the number of prisoners now being discussed for release in exchange of the remaining hostages, but it is understood that nine Taliban prisoners, including some releases facilitated by the U.S. have been freed, while two others, accused of more serious crimes, awaited being freed by the government.
The talks for the last Indian hostage reportedly hit a roadblock last week, after President Ghani halted the release of the last 400 Taliban prisoners, all of whom are accused of serious crimes, saying the Afghan Constitution would not permit it. Thus far, under the U.S.-Taliban agreement and the U.S.-Afghanistan government agreement signed in February 2020, Afghanistan has released 4,914 prisoners while the Taliban has released nearly 1,000 hostages in its custody.
After the Taliban protested, even threatening violence would be resumed, President Ghani said he would convene a meeting of “elders” or a Loya Jirga to decide on the matter, which is now expected on Friday. Both sides are expected to announce an intra-Afghan dialogue, possibly as early as next week, if the deal goes through, which would be a crucial next step in the Afghanistan reconciliation process.
Meanwhile, the family members of the three hostages told The Hindu they have not heard of any movement on the release of their loved ones, but are in touch with their State governments as well as KEC officials for updates. Prasadi Mahto and Hulas Mahto belong to two villages in the Baghdad block of Giridih district. Both are sole breadwinners for their families, and have three children each. The family members of all four labourers from Jharkhand had also got ₹1 lakh as compensation from previous government led by Chief Minister Raghuvar Das in 2019. Mantu Singh, belonging to Bihar’s Madhepura district, has two children, and his wife continues to receive his salary from his employers, his brother Doman Singh said. Of the four hostages who were released last year, two belonged to Jharkhand, while two belonged to Kerala.
Pinned to the process’s fate now is the fate of the remaining hostages who have spent more than 26 months in Taliban custody. The sources said that after being kidnapped in the North, the hostages were moved around to Taliban strongholds in the South. The kidnapping ran counter to the Taliban’s earlier assurances that they wouldn’t target Indians who were involved in development projects, and the Baglan governor had originally suggested the abduction was a case of mistaken identity. Even so, the Taliban had refused to release the last three hostages despite many attempts. When asked, MEA officials in Delhi and Kabul said that they were not involved in the negotiations, but were briefed by Afghan officials conducting the talks.
On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ghani spoke to exchange Eid greetings. According to an MEA statement, the leaders spoke about the “evolving security situation”, but the MEA spokesperson’s office did not respond to a query on whether they had discussed the latest situation of the Indian hostages specifically. According to an Afghanistan Foreign Ministry release, Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Vinay Kumar also met with Afghanistan’s Acting Foreign Minister Hanif Atmar in Kabul and spoke about the importance of building regional consensus on the Afghan peace process.
“Minister Atmar and Ambassador Kumar reflected on the importance of the ceasefire between the Afghan government and the Taliban during Eid and saw it as a positive step towards establishing lasting peace in the country,” the statement said.
(With inputs from Amarnath Tewary in Patna)