Afghans Should Accept Peace Talks With the Taliban to Promote Peace

Impact

In a recent briefing to the media, Afghan president Hamid Karzai said, “The Afghan Taliban are ready for peace negotiations with us, but they aren’t allowed to because the Pakistani authorities are keeping their families hostage. I will request that NATO, ISAF, and other coalition partners work to free up the Taliban from the grip of Pakistani state intelligence agencies." Karzai clearly knows the conditions of the Afghan Taliban inside Pakistan, who have lost their loved ones in the war against their own people. He also knows that they no longer want to fight, even though they continue to be pushed into the battle ground.

Many Taliban leaders have been killed for trying to give up their guns and seek asylum and peace talks with the Afghan government. An example is Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, second to Mullah Omer, who was kidnapped by the Pakistani intelligence agencies in Karachi. The Pakistani authorities knew that he was the backbone in peace negotiations with the Afghan government.

The Afghan Taliban, Afghan government, and NATO, ISAF, and other coalition partners may be putting the final touches on a peace agreement. An agreement will include provisions to releasing Taliban families from inside Pakistan, settling them in Afghanistan with peace and security. It’s known from different sources that the Afghan Taliban will be required to accept the constitution and laws of Afghanistan, as well as stop the war and give up their arms.

But the peace process has been disturbed until now by various stake holders. For example, Professor Burhanuddin Rabbani, the chief of peace commission from the Afghan government, was assassinated by a suicide bomber who had put explosives in his turban.

The international community should pressure Pakistan to stop sabotaging peace negotiations and release hostage Taliban families.

It’s possible that the Afghan Taliban will be given the chance to democratically take part in the country’s parliamentary elections under the law. It would be wise for the Afghan Taliban to attract the people of Afghanistan peacefully and democratically to their new slogans for making Afghanistan a democratic and developed state.

Many Afghans will reject peace talks with the Taliban, but over time, they will accept these talks in order to bring peace back to the country.

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