Many Taliban leaders to reconcile soon: ex-comrade

KABUL official on Wednesday claimed he had information that some high and low profile Taliban leaders would join soon the government-initiated peace process — both overtly and covertly.

Maulvi Noorul Aziz, who served as the governor of northern Kunduz province during the Taliban’s regime, told Pajhwok Afghan News during an exclusive interview that many Taliban fighters had no interest to continue with the armed resistance.

Aziz, who along with his 50-member group reconciled with the government two years back under the national reconciliation programme, currently serves as Kunduz Haj and Islamic Affairs Director.

He said many Taliban leaders had ceased fire after realising that the Americans had not come to Afghanistan for its occupation but to rebuild the war-devastated country.

Aziz also said the Afghan Taliban had not been involved in bomb blasts that killed people in mosques and other public places, something he blamed on insurgents linked to foreign agencies.

He urged all parties to the conflict to resolve it through peaceful dialogue and avoid the use of force. “The government of Afghanistan is Islamic, all its members are Muslims who are the sons of the soil,” the former Taliban official said.

Aziz acknowledged religious scholars had a crucial role to play in putting an end to the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan.

President Hamid Karzai has recently returned from Doha, where he discussed with the Qatari leadership the opening of a Taliban political bureau.

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