KABUL (SW) – Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum, former Vice President and Leader of the Junbish party, returned from his hometown Sheberghan to Kabul after a year and a half to meet with President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani and other political leaders.
Dostum, speaking at a ceremony in Kabul on the occasion of his return, criticized the Taliban for increasing the violence in a bid to defame the government. The former vice president, referring to the intra-Afghan peace talks in Doha, said that if this round failed, he was ready to fight the Taliban.
“We support the peace process and if it doesn’t work out, we are ready to defend this system of governance and the democracy,” said Marshal Abdul Rashid Dostum.
Abdullah Abdullah, chairman of the High Council of National Reconciliation, who also attended the ceremony, spoke in support of the peace process, adding that war and insecurity in Afghanistan had increased. He acknowledged insecurity in the country has increased. “What the Afghan people expected was not achieved,” Abdullah said.
Mohammad Mohaqiq, senior advisor to the President, said at the ceremony that domination of Afghanistan by force and by aggravating the situation was not possible.
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