Taliban talks in Pak were about hostages: Afghanistan

Kabul: The Afghan government has said that talks in Islamabad between a Taliban delegation and Pakistani authorities were about the release of two hostages and not on the resumption of the peace process.
“As much we are officially aware, the peace talks (between US and Taliban) are stopped, and have not been started yet,” Idrees Zaman, Deputy Foreign Minister, told a press conference in Kabul on Saturday.
“The talks which are currently underway in Islamabad, in fact we can say they are about the two American hostages between captors,” added Zaman.
Zaman did not give details about the hostages, but it seemed a likely reference to the professors from the American University of Afghanistan who were kidnapped in Kabul in August 2016, Efe news reported.
They were identified as American Kevin King and Australian Timothy John Weekes.
The visit of the Taliban delegation to Islamabad coincided with a visit to the Pakistani capital of US special representative for Afghan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad.