Opportunity for Building Peace in Afghanistan Should be Seized

March 4, (The Killid Group) – A number of religious scholars, former government officials as well as officials in the High Peace Council said after decades [of war] in Afghanistan, there is an opportunity for building peace; the opportunity should be seized.  

A number of scholars (Ulema) across the country, former and current officials in the High Peace Council, in a gathering on Wednesday [March 4, 2020], called for the parties involved in the Afghan peace process to come together.

Speaking in the gathering of The Need for Moderation in the Afghan Society, Abdul Hakim Mujahid, deputy chairperson of the Afghan High Peace Council, said the Afghan government, politicians and the Taliban must agree with the goal of implementing Islamic law to secure peace in the country.

The former minister of finance, Omar Zakhilwal, on the other hand, said the country’s greatest misery and challenge today is “political instability” and lack of a “centralized” system.

In the meantime, Ikram Khpalwak, former presidential adviser in political affairs, said in the gathering that there is now a great opportunity for building peace in the country; however, the slightest mistake would have dramatic consequences and will likely trigger a new crisis in Afghanistan.

According to him, a number of government insiders and outsiders have been trying to disrupt the peace process.

Following the signing of the U.S.-Taliban agreement, the intra-Afghan peace negotiations were expected to begin, but the Taliban said the talks would not proceed if 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the government were not released.