Afghanistan Times
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AT Monitoring Desk-KABUL: The High Peace Council (HPC) said that rifts among leadership of the Taliban militants have widened. The council urged the Taliban fighters to join the peace process.
According to reports, the Taliban’s supreme leader Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansoor recently succumbed to his injuries. Office of the Vice President Abdul Rashid Dostum said that Akhtar Mansoor was injured during infighting among the Taliban leaders in the residence of Mullah Abdullah Sarhadi in Quetta. However, the Taliban’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid rejected the reports.
Maulavi Shahzada Shahid, spokesman for the HPC, told Azadi Radio that differences among the Taliban’s leadership are at the peak. “Thus, the Taliban fighters should renounce violence and should join the peace process,” he said.
He added that the differences will kill all the Taliban militants, if they didn’t talked peace with the Afghan government. “Even though death of the Taliban leaders usually delay peace talks, the HPC wants to avail the opportunity and ask the Taliban to come to the negotiation table,” Shahid said.
In the meantime, the second Deputy Speaker of the Wolesi Jirga, said that in the face of the widening rifts among the Taliban, the HPC should increase its contacts with militants to call them to peace talks.
“It is a golden chance for the Afghan government to turn the differences in the favor of Afghanistan,” he added.
However, a political analyst Sardar Muhammad Rahimi believes that death of the Taliban leaders cannot bring peace. He said that the international community should put pressure on Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table.
“Death or injury of the Taliban leaders, even death of Mullah Omar, could not bring peace to Afghanistan. Thus, I am not confident that Akhtar Mansoor’s death or injury will kick start peace talks. The international community should pressurize Pakistan to force Taliban to talk peace with the Afghan government,” he added.
