Daily Times

The Taliban are notorious for breaching accords, especially truces. Within two days of striking a deal with the US, termed historic by America and Pakistan, the Taliban shattered the ceasefire into pieces by striking a football ground in Khost, killing three brothers. A brief lull in Taliban attacks before the deal had made everybody believe that they were serious about peace in Afghanistan. Their partial truce with America stood intact only for a week. Now, they have ordered their fighters to resume fighting as has been said by Taliban leader Zabihullah Mujahid, the diplomatic face of the Taliban. He told a news agency that “the reduction in violence… has ended now and our operations will continue as normal”. The Taliban, however, promised to not attack foreign forces but “our operations will continue against the Kabul administration forces”. Will the Taliban explain if the three brothers killed in Khost were affiliated with the Kabul government?

The main problem right now between the Taliban and the Kabul government is the swap of prisoners, which is the central point of the Doha accord. No Afghan government representative was present at the signing ceremony because the Taliban did not consider them a legitimate stakeholder in Afghan affairs and because the US government did not want to offend the Taliban during the peace talks.

President Ashraf Ghani has condemned the violence, adding that his side would stick to the partial truce at least until talks between Afghan officials and the Taliban begin. The Kabul government is furious at the one-sided deal and the prisoner exchange, as it is reluctant to release a good bunch of Taliban prisoners, who are proven killers of innocent people. The Taliban, however, say unless their valuable assets, bombers and suicide attack collaborators, are released, the truce will not be honoured and intra-Afghan talks will not start. Washington, now acting as the devil’s advocate, says it expects the Taliban to maintain the reduction of violence ahead of the talks. *