Kabul, Nov 1 (IANS): At least 261 Afghan civilians were killed and 602 others injured in Taliban attacks in the last 50 days, the Ministry of Interior Affairs (MoI) said, adding that the militant group conducted roughly 2,000 attacks during this period.

"The Afghan National Security and Defence Forces in retaliation to these attacks inflicted heavy casualties to the Taliban. Over the past 50 days, up to 2,000 members of the Taliban terrorists were killed and wounded," TOLO News quoted Tariq Arian, a Ministry spokesman, as saying on Saturday.

The Afghan government on Saturday said that it released over 6,000 Taliban prisoners for peace with the hope that violence is reduced and a ceasefire is announced.

"But the Taliban did not stop this unjustified war against its own people. The group instead has increased the war.

"The government released over 6,000 Taliban prisoners for the sake of a ceasefire, but the Taliban did not announce it," said Dawa Khan Menapal, deputy spokesman for President Ashraf Ghani.

The Taliban has however, rejected their involvement in the civilian casualties, saying they were only targeting the government forces in their offensives, reports TOLO News.

Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the prisoners release was part of the US-Taliban peace agreement and that no condition was set there to reduce attacks on the Afghan government forces.