KABUL: The Taliban rejected on Monday an Afghan government offer of a ceasefire and said they would persist with their attacks, militant commanders said, while insurgents ambushed three buses and nearly 200 passengers travelling for a holiday.
Two Taliban commanders said their supreme leader rejected President Ashraf Ghani´s Sunday offer of a three-month ceasefire, beginning with this week´s Eid holiday. Taliban leader Sheikh Haibatullah Akhunzada rejected the new offer on the grounds that it too would only help the American-led mission. “Our leadership feels that they´ll prolong their stay in Afghanistan if we announced a ceasefire now,” a senior Taliban commander, who declined to be identified, said by telephone. An official in Ghani´s office said the three-month-long ceasefire declared by the government was conditional, and if the Taliban did not respect it, the government would maintain military operations.
Government officials are trying to secure the release of at least 170 civilians and 20 members of the security forces who were taken hostage by Taliban from three buses in the northern province of Kunduz. Esmatullah Muradi, a spokesman for the governor of Kunduz, said the kidnapping happened when the buses were travelling through Kunduz from Takhar province.
“The buses were stopped by the Taliban fighters, passengers were forced to step down and they have been taken to an undisclosed location,” Muradi said. A Taliban commander in neighbouring Pakistan said civilian hostages were being divided into small groups to be sent back home. However, members of Afghan security forces had been shifted to the Taliban’s secret jail. “Most probably we would exchange them for our prisoners later,” said the commander.
The Taliban confirmed they had captured “three buses packed with passengers”. “We decided to seize the buses after our intelligence inputs revealed that many men working with Afghan security forces were travelling to Kabul,” Zabihullah Mujahid, a spokesman for the Taliban, said by telephone.
“We are now identifying members of the security forces,” he said, adding that civilians would be released. Kunduz provincial council member Sayed Assadullah Sadat said people on the buses were travelling to be with family in Kabul for the holiday. A senior interior ministry official in Kabul said officials in the area were talking to Taliban leaders in Kunduz to get the estimated 190 hostages released.
“We´re are trying our level best to secure freedom for all passengers,” the official said. Separately, Mujahid said the Taliban would release at least 500 prisoners, including members of the security forces, on Monday, a day before Eid celebrations begin.