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Taliban Refuses To Heed the Demands of Peace Activists
The Taliban has not paid heed to the given three-day deadline of the activists of Helmand peace march who arrived in Kabul earlier last week and placed list of demands aimed at facilitating peace in the country.
The activists days earlier gave a three-day deadline for the Taliban to extend ceasefire with the government as part of their efforts to facilitate peace talks between Kabul-Taliban in strife-torn country.
Last week, they met with President Ashraf Ghani and asked the president to agree on their four key demands that included the extension of ceasefire, a venue for peace talks, “joint system” that could preserve the interests of all citizens and withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
In response to their given three-day deadline, the activists on Saturday (June 23), said that the Taliban leadership has contacted them and that it stressed on withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan.
“They stressed once again on withdrawal of foreign forces particularly, asked us again to hold protest tents near Baghram Airbase [in Parwan province], ” said Iqbal Khyber, the head of the peace convoy.
Following the Taliban’s silence response to their demands, the activists are expected to launch a three-day long protest tents in front of some embassies in the capital Kabul including the embassies of the U.S., Russia, Pakistan and Iran from Sunday.
“The members of our leadership will be present and then would go to the embassies and will stay for three days in each of the embassies,” said Azad, a member of the peace convoy.
“We clarify that these [foreign] political offices and international forces in Afghanistan are not here to ensuring peace, but making efforts to destroy peace and stability in the country,” Iqbal Khyber said.
This comes the government has accepted all of the placed demands of the peace activists, including conditionally extension of ceasefire with the Taliban to one year.
“Unofficial contacts and talks have been maintained in the past, but an appropriate time is needed for ensuring official talks [with the Taliban],” said a presidential advisor Abas Basir.
By Shakib Mahmud and Bayes Hayat
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Girls’ education is a ‘vital issue’ for Afghanistan: Karzai
Former president Hamid Karzai said in a meeting with Iran’s ambassador and special representative, Hassan Kazemi Qomi, that education of girls was a “vital issue” for Afghanistan.
Karzai said he appreciated Iran’s cooperation and its standing with the Afghan people, especially Iran’s contributions to education in Afghanistan.
During the meeting, Karzai said peace and stability in the region are in the interest of all regional countries.
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Uzbekistan’s humanitarian aid arrives in Balkh
A shipment of humanitarian aid from Uzbekistan was handed over on Thursday to the local officials of Balkh province in the trade port of Hairatan.
Local authorities said the aid, which includes flour, oil, wheat, sugar and meat, has been handed over by Uzbekistan’s Surkhandarya governor to the governor of Balkh.
The governor of Surkhandarya stated the purpose of sending this aid was to support the people of Afghanistan and stressed the need for the development of good relations between the two countries.
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Afghanistan’s problems caused more damage to Pakistan than 3 wars with India: Durrani
Islamabad’s special envoy for Afghanistan Asif Durrani said on Wednesday that Pakistan has suffered more due to Afghanistan’s internal situation than Pakistan has suffered in three wars with India in terms of blood spilt and finances drained.
Durrani said at a one-day International Conference titled “Pakistan in the Emerging Geopolitical Landscape”, which was organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI) and the German Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES), that over 80,000 Pakistanis died in the two decades of the War on Terror and that his country was still counting its dead and injured.
“After the withdrawal of NATO forces, it was hoped that peace in Afghanistan would bring peace to the region. However, such expectations were short-lived,” he said.
He also stated that attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militant group on Pakistan’s border areas increased by 65 percent, while suicide attacks increased by 500 percent.
“The TTP’s enhanced attacks on Pakistan while using Afghan soil have been a serious concern for Pakistan. Another worrying aspect is the participation of Afghan nationals in these attacks,” he said.
Durrani also said Pakistan had suffered geopolitically since the Soviet Union invaded the neighboring country.
“The post-9/11 world order has negatively impacted Pakistan. Apart from losing 80,000 citizens’ lives, including 8,000 law enforcement agency personnel, the country’s economic opportunity cost is estimated at $150 billion,” Durrani said.
Talking about the future outlook for Pakistan in the regional context, Durrani said that while “our eastern neighbor is likely to continue with its anti-Pakistan pursuits, the western border poses an avoidable irritant in the short to medium term.”
However, he said Pakistan can overcome its difficulties with Afghanistan, including the TTP challenge.
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