Play role in Afghan peace talks, Samiul Haq urged

PESHAWAR (Pajhwok): The Afghan government has urged a Pakistani cleric known as the Father of Taliban to help efforts at arranging talks on ending the 17-year-old war.

An Afghan delegation issued the call at a meeting with Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam head Maulana Samiul Haq at Darul Uloom Haqqania in Akora Khattak on Monday.

The visiting team included religious leaders, representatives of the Kabul.

A statement from the seminary said the delegates appealed to Haq to play the role of a mediator between different Taliban factions as they considered him their elder.

At the meeting lasted two hours and a half, the delegation members promised accepting whatever decision the cleric took on reconciliation in Afghanistan.

Maulana Sami told them that the Afghan issue was very complicated and its resolution was not an easy task for him. However, he said he wished to see a logical end to Afghan jihad and its result like freedom of the country and supremacy of Islam, as well as an end to bloodshed in Afghanistan.

He advised the delegation to arrange a meeting between sincere religious leaders and the Taliban without any interference from the United States and Pakistan at a secret place to understand each other’s aims.

Once the two sides agreed on basic things, demand for an end to the NATO mission in Afghanistan be raised, Haq proposed. All Afghan groups should sit together for a system in the country acceptable to its people.

mud