A three-member delegation of the Afghan Taliban negotiators has arrived in islamabad from the Islamist insurgency’s political office in Qatar for “exploratory” meetings with authorities in Islamabad, diplomatic sources confirmed Monday to taand.com.
The report, however, did not confirm if the three-member team of the Qatar-based Taliban political office will be meeting with representatives of the Afghan government.
The delegation includes Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, a former diplomat in Islamabad and Jan Muhammad Madni, who has served as Afghan ambassador to UAE during the Taliban, according to the report.
The dramatic development happened on a day when Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani, in a speech to the national parliament, blamed Pakistan for not preventing fugitive Taliban leaders from using its soil to plot insurgent violence in Afghanistan.
Pakistan had hosted the first face-to-face meeting between the Taliban and the Afghan government in July last year near Islamabad. The talks – dubbed as Murree Peace Process – broke down after the death of Mullah Omar was confirmed in late July.
The Afghan Taliban have not officially said anything about the visit.
The arrival of Taliban’s political representatives coincide with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani’s remarks in which he urged the Pakistani government to take military action against the Taliban and hand them over to Kabul so that they may be tried in Sharia courts.
The Afghan president on Monday said Kabul no more wants Islamabad to bring the Taliban to the negotiation table.
The Taliban had refused to take part in the negotiations last month under the quadrilateral group of Pakistan, Afghanistan, China and the United States.
Pakistan, Afghanistan, the U.S. and China launched a four-way dialogue process earlier this year to arrange Afghan reconciliation talks.
