President Ashraf Ghani in a meeting on Sunday announced that the government will release up to 2,000 Taliban prisoners as a goodwill gesture in response to the Taliban's calling for a three-day ceasefire, and the president also pledged to take further steps in the peace process. 

On May 11 the Afghan government suspended the release of insurgent prisoners, saying the Taliban must bring its total number of released security force members to 200. The government claimed that so far the group had only freed 105."

The Afghan government has released 1,000 Taliban prisoners so far. The release of up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners was included as part of the US-Taliban deal signed in Doha on Feb. 29.

 The decision to release the prisoners was a "goodwill gesture" and was taken "to ensure the success of the peace process", Ghani's spokesman Sediq Sediqqi said on Twitter.

Ghani said earlier Sunday he would expedite the process of freeing Taliban inmates.

A US-Taliban deal signed in February stipulated that the Afghan government would release up to 5,000 Taliban prisoners while the insurgents would free about 1,000 Afghan security force personnel.