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Thursday March 28, 2024

Afghan Taliban seek time to reply to Pakistan’s call

By Rahimullah Yusufzai
November 02, 2016

PESHAWAR: The Afghan Taliban leadership has sought time to reply to Pakistan government’s recent call to hold peace talks with the government of President Ashraf Ghani.

Taliban sources said Pakistani officials conveyed their wish to the three-member Afghan Taliban delegation that visited Pakistan recently. The delegation members included Mulla Shahabuddin Dilawar, Mulla Jan Mohammad Madani and Mulla Abdul Salam Hanafi. All of them are members of the Doha-based Taliban Political Commission.

The sources said the delegation also met senior Afghan Taliban officials to convey the Pakistan government’s message to them and seek guidance on other issues. It has now returned to Qatar.When contacted, Prime Minister’s Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said Pakistan since long had been urging the Taliban to agree to peace talks with the Afghan government.

“We urged them again to hold talks instead of fighting the Afghan government. We facilitated the Afghan peace talks in the past and are trying to do so again,” he added.

Sartaj Aziz denied a report carried by an international news agency that Islamabad has warned the Afghan Taliban leaders that they would be expelled from Pakistan if it was kept out of the Taliban peace talks with Kabul.

Tariq Fatemi, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs, said Pakistan had been telling the Afghan Taliban all along that use of force was no solution to the Afghan conflict.

“We have been insisting that there was no other option except reconciliation in Afghanistan through peace talks,” he told The News. He said Pakistan stood by its policy made clear by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during an earlier visit to Kabul that Afghanistan’s enemies are also Pakistan’s enemies.

Meanwhile, Afghan Taliban sources said the Taliban Rahbari Shura (Leadership Council) had discussed the Pakistan government’s message conveyed to it by the three-member Taliban delegation that recently came from Qatar and held talks with the Pakistani officials.

The sources said the Rahbari Shura sought more time to consult the Taliban military commanders in Afghanistan as any decision taken without their agreement would be difficult to implement.

“Taliban military commanders and fighters hold the key to continuing the war or ending the conflict in Afghanistan,” the Taliban sources quoted senior Taliban leaders as saying. They said the consultation process would take time as Taliban are fighting in almost all the 34 provinces of Afghanistan and making contact with the commanders isn’t always easy.

Taliban sources said the Rahbari Shura had got the impression that Pakistan wanted some headway to be made with regard to the Afghan peace talks during the US presidential election or before the installation of the new president.

The sources said the Taliban leadership was aware of the international pressure on the Pakistan government to facilitate the Afghan peace talks or take action against the irreconcilable Taliban leaders hiding in Pakistan. The sources said the Taliban leaders were aware that Pakistan could act against them if they continued to refuse peace talks with the Afghan government as some of their colleagues were already in Pakistan government’s custody.