ISLAMABAD: Senior Afghan officials arrived in Pakistan to initiate peace talks with the Afghan Taliban following a breakthrough in negotiations during last month’s summit in Britain, officials from both countries said yesterday.
The delegation was in Pakistan to meet former Taliban No 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a man seen by Kabul as the key to restarting peace talks with the Taliban, said a spokesman for Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, Mohammed Anwar Eshaaqzai.
Eshaaqzai was unable to say if the group had already met Baradar or would do so in coming days. Baradar has been held in an undisclosed location in Pakistan since Islamabad announced in September that it would release him in order to facilitate the Afghan peace process.
“The Afghan peace council has arrived in Islamabad accompanied by some other foreign and interior ministry officials,” a Pakistani official with knowledge of the peace talks said. “This is a follow-up of what was decided in London and they will meet officials in the ministries of interior and foreign,” the official said.
British Prime Minister David Cameron hosted Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London last month to discuss ways to kickstart the stalled process.
Karzai formed the Afghan High Peace Council in 2010 to pursue a negotiated peace with the Taliban, who have been leading an insurgency since being ousted from power by US-led forces in 2001.
Baradar is a long-time friend of the reclusive Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and Afghanistan believes he is still powerful enough to persuade the insurgents to lay down their weapons and make peace.
Reuters
