KABUL (PAN): The Talibans response was immediate to President Hamid Karzai's call for them to lay down their arms: they fired multiple rockets at the venue in central Kabul on Wednesday.
The long-awaited peace jirga aimed at offering a ceasefire with the Taliban nearly turned into a new frontline with several hundred US-trained Afghan Special Forces against a few insurgents armed with rocket-propelled grenades and suicide vests.
As Karzai addressed the 1,600 delegates gathered in a massive marquee for the start of the three-day jirga, urging them to find a way to bring peace to the country, gun-fire erupted outside the heavily-guarded venue.
It was a clear sign that the Taliban, who had dismissed the jirga as a false attempt to negotiate peace, were unwilling to discuss terms with the Kabul government.
Karzai quickly wrapped up his speech and left despite being scheduled to stay for the selection of the chair of the jirga.
Before the gun-fire started, Karzai had warned those assembled that such incidents could happen, but added the Afghan people were used to explosions and terrorist attacks.
However, his abrupt departure cooled sentiment in the venue.
That turned even colder when the second speaker, the head of the Afghan Senate, Sebghatullah Mujadadi, said there would be no election for the jirgas leadership as promised.
As Mujadadi was speaking, a rocket landed a few metres from the tent, wounding one of Karzai's bodyguards.
Mujadadi was able to keep the audiences attention for a few more minutes before authorities announced an immediate evacuation and the delegates were asked to return to their rooms -- a university hostel a minute walk from the tent.
The evacuation was a clear warning to expect more rockets.
Outside the venue, Afghan forces were battling to regain control of the situation, killing two suicide bombers and arresting one other.
But the scare had been enough for some representatives.
As the participants were called back into the tent, nearly one third, mostly women and nearly all of the foreign guests, did not return.
The well-planned attacks occurred despite the presence of 12,000 police across the fortified Afghan capital, showing that the Taliban still have the power and capacity to target a secure zone.
Thousands of homes in the vicinity of the venue had been searched ahead of the jirga and pedestrians had been banned from walking in the area a day before the jirga even started.
There were no foreign soldiers in the area in an attempt to show the event was an Afghan-led initiative.
Other than the rocket attacks, the jirga did not get off to a good start.
The selection of Burhanuddin Rabbani, the former president and an MP, as the head of the jirga, was not well-received by a large number of delegates, mostly representatives of the south and eastern region of the country.
Many said that Rabbani, who fought against the Taliban for several years, was not the best choice to lead a jirga aimed at bringing the Taliban to the negotiation table.
The initial announcement of the jirgas leadership -- a chairman, his deputy and two secretaries -- was also seen as an insult to the 300 or so women at the jirga as all four nominees were men. The womens opposition forced the leadership to name a woman to their group.
A Herat representative, Adeela Haqmal, said the decision to not include a woman showed that they were undervalued and could have led to a boycott of the event by women.
The Taliban regime was the darkest period for Afghan women as they were deprived of their basic rights, and the plan not to include even one woman in the leadership of the jirga was seen by some women as a way to show favour to the Taliban.
Although women made up less than a quarter of the total delegates, there was a more equal representation of women among the Afghan refugees coming from Iran -- where it was about 50:50.
The Taliban have set the withdrawal of foreign forces as a precondition for any peace deal, something Karzai has said was not acceptable for his government or the international community.
It was not clear then how effective the jirga could be in ending the war if talks with the main insurgent group had been effectively vetoed before they had even begun.
ln/cas