Afghan Taliban delegation visits Pakistan, briefs about recent talks with Kabul

ISLAMABAD: Three senior members of the Afghan Taliban held a series of meetings with Pakistani officials in the federal capital in a bid to brief them about the recent secret talks with Kabul held in Qatar.

The Islamabad meets were confirmed on Saturday by a Pakistani official, an Afghan diplomat and a senior Taliban official.

Although the Afghan ambassador to Pakistan Hazrat Omar Zakhilwal said he was aware of the meetings but refused to offer details.

The Taliban who were sent to Pakistan included former ministers in the Taliban government Mullah Salam Hanifi and Mullah Jan Mohammed and Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar also a former ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan said the senior Taliban official.

Islamabad is playing its role to ensure peace in Afghanistan, said the senior Pakistani security official on condition of anonymity who confirmed the latest meetings between the Taliban and Pakistani authorities.

“We will keep making efforts to facilitate talks between Kabul and the Taliban as we did in July 2015 but the world knows who scuttled the peace process at the time and we do not want to discuss those bitter things,” the Pakistani official added.

Pakistan arranged the first-ever face to face meeting between Kabul and the Taliban in 2015 but the peace process broke down after the Afghan government announced the death years earlier of the Taliban’s founder and leader Mullah Mohammed Omar. (INP)