News - Afghanistan

Pressure from the Taliban and Arabs forced the Afghan government to take over the US-run Bagram prison, Kabul University political analyst Faizullah Jalal told TOLOnews Tuesday.

"I think President Karzai was under pressure from Taliban figures inside Afghanistan and the Arabs as they lacked commanders in the fighting grounds. [Karzai] will release Taliban prisoners from Bagram just as he did from Pul-e-Charkhi prison," Jalal said.

According to a report in the Washington Times, tensions between the Afghan government and high ranking US officials caused the US officials not to attend the ceremony yesterday. It suggested that President Hamid Karzai and top Nato commander in Afghanistan Gen. John Allen argued over the transfer or release of several high threat Taliban prisoners from Bagram.

There was evidence of something amiss when Karzai's office made a public statement just three days before the official handover ceremony warning against any delay in the transfer, but there was no mention in the statement of what had prompted the warning.

The Afghan Human Rights Organisation said that the tensions between Afghan government officials and US commanders were due to deficiencies in the agreement which was signed in March between Isaf commander Gen John Allen and former Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak.

"The agreement has many legal deficiencies and it clearly violated the Afghan constitution and several other laws in Afghanistan. [Some] articles of this agreement resulted in conflicts between the Afghan government and US commanders. The tensions will strain the relationship if the agreement continues in the same way," head of Afghanistan Human Rights Organization Lahl Gul Lahl told TOLOnews Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Afghan political expert Ahmad Sayedi believes that Bagram prison never violated Afghan sovereignty, on the contrary, the US forces were protecting Afghans by detaining thousands of criminals.

"Bagram prison which was run by the US forces in Afghanistan had never violated Afghan sovereignty because hundreds of war criminals and insurgents commander were being held their by the Americans," Sayedi told TOLOnews.