KABUL (SW) – The Taliban are reluctant to have a debate over the religious grounds or legitimacy of their ongoing insurgency in Afghanistan.
Abdul Hafeez Mansoor, a member of the Afghan government’s peace delegation told this to Salam Watandar via phone from Doha. He said the Taliban have been asked to have a debate over this issue before moving forward to discuss the agenda for the forthcoming intra-Afghan negotiations.
“This has been proposed to the Taliban that the religious scholars from both sides can sit and discuss the legitimacy of the insurgency in the light of Quran and Hadith that would help resolve a number of issues in regard to setting an agenda for the negotiations”, he said.
Another member of the Afghan government’s peace delegation, Ghulam Farooq Majroh, said a six-point draft for the agenda has been handed over to the Taliban, however, they have not responded yet. He added the Afghan government delegation is ready to have a debate over the legitimacy of the insurgency with the Taliban.
We wished to have the views of the Taliban on it, but to no avail.
A former member of the Taliban, Mohammad Husain Haqyar, said in this regard that the issue of religious legitimacy of the insurgency was never part of the agenda for the intra-Afghan negotiations, which might be a reason why the Taliban do not want to have a debate over it.
This comes as 10 days have passed since the second round of intra-Afghan negotiations began in the Qatari capital, Doha.
ENDS
