Residents of Bamyan urge warring sides to enter peace talks

BAMYAN CITY (Pajhwok): Hundreds of people, including clerics, civil society to enter talks.

A gathering on the peace process was addressed by religious scholars and influential figures at the grand masque in Bamyan City, the provincial capital. Speakers urged the warning sides to find a peaceful solution to the conflict.

Provincial peace committee head Mohammad Sadiq Aliyar called Bamyan a peaceful province, whose residents were proud of consistently conveying a message of peace to their countrymen.

He said students of the province had been studying under the streetlights and they always thought of the country’s development and stability.

Dr. Ahmad Omaid, imam of the masque, told the gathering the peace process would not yield the desired result as long as war and ethnic prejudice were not ended.

He said an American professor, in a book he had written a book on Afghanistan’s peace and war, pointed out that ethnic differences were a major reason behind the ongoing conflict.

Mohammad Ibrahim Tola, a civil society activist, said: “We have been living in peace. However, we are not happy because most of our countrymen have been living in war. We want peace for all.”

He urged the government and the Taliban to respect a recent fatwa from religious scholars and come to the negotiating table and stop the killing and wounding of innocent people.

pk/mud

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