A Taliban spokesman, Qari Yousef Ahmadi, said Thursday night that the group had released 30 Afghan security force members in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province.

Ahmadi did not provide further details about the release of the hostages but in a video shared on social media it appeared the decision was based on an order by the group’s leaders.

An unidentified Taliban member, who filmed the short clip of the hostages, said: “These 30 people are national police, border and local police. Today, based on the Taliban leaders’ kindness order… they were released in Panjwai district and sent to their families.”

According to the post, the Taliban will release a further 30 hostages but no details were released on this.

The Taliban also posted a list of names of captives freed.

This is the first release of a large group of hostages since the start of the Afghan peace talks in Doha, Qatar in September.

The last group to be freed was in August, when the Taliban released about 1,000 Afghan security force members.

This had been part of the main prisoner swap between the Afghan government and the Taliban in accordance with a deal struck in February between the United States and the Taliban.