Daily Times

Political representatives of Afghan Taliban travelled to attend peace talks held in Indonesia, confirmed on Friday by the Taliban’s political office.

Afghan Taliban Qatar office said that a delegation of political representatives led by its office chief Sher Muhammad Abbas Stanekzai visited Indonesia from August 12 to August 15.

In a statement received by Daily Times from political spokesman of Taliban Suhail Shaheen, the delegation met Indonesian deputy president Muhammad Jusuf Kalla, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi and presidential special envoy for Afghanistan and discussed ways to bring peace to Afghanistan and withdrawal of foreign troops. Both sides also exchanged views on bilateral relations.

Taliban was also supposed to visit Indonesia in March this year when Indonesian Ulema Council held a conference of religious scholars belonging from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Indonesia.

The conference was postponed after the Taliban dismissed it by calling it a “ploy by the intelligence to justify the American invasion”. The conference was later held in May when Indonesian government assured Taliban that no edict will be issued against them.

Taliban political envoys have also stepped up the efforts to contact other countries, after they met senior American diplomats in Doha last month in their first direct talks.

They also visited Uzbekistan earlier this month as a part of their diplomatic efforts to take countries into confidence and to expedite the peace process with Americans.

It is equally ironic to see Taliban expediting the diplomatic process, when they are also increasing their attacks against security forces. Over 200 security personnel have been killed in these attacks over the past few days. They held a siege in Ghazni for five days after the city was cleared by Afghan’s security forces. The clash reportedly killed 100 soldiers and injured 95 civilians. Taliban also killed at least 40 security forces on their raid on a military base in northern Baghlan province on August 14th.

President Ghani on Friday visited Ghazni where he again asked the Taliban to join the peace process and said that Taliban want “more concessions in talks with their fighting.” He claimed that injured Taliban “receive treatment in Pakistan.”

The statement was rejected by foreign office Pakistan. ‘We have not received any evidence to back up these spurious accusations and reject these baseless allegations. ‘said the foreign office spokesman at weekly briefing.

Published in Daily Times, August 18^th 2018.