Just a day after Taliban and the United States signed a peace deal in Doha, mistrust and uncertainty started knocking the door.
Taliban have ruled out taking part in intra-Afghan talks until their around 5000 prisoners are released as Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said on Sunday that US President Donald Trump had not asked for the release of the prisoners and that the issue of prisoner releases should be discussed as part of a comprehensive peace deal.
Under an accord between the United States and the Taliban signed on Saturday, the two sides are committed to working towards the release of combat and political prisoners as a confidence-building measure.
The agreement calls for up to 5,000 jailed Taliban prisoners to be released in exchange for up to 1,000 Afghan government captives by March 10. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, not involved in the talks, has, however, rejected that demand.
On the other hand, Pakistan has suggested that any reservations Afghanistan has with Islamabad should be resolved bilaterally rather than involving the United States. Minister of Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on Sunday the United States commits to facilitate discussions between Afghanistan and Pakistan to work out arrangements to ensure neither country’s security is threatened by actions from the territory of the other side.
Pakistan emphasizes that Afghanistan should talk directly to Pakistan as the US is planning to withdraw and Pakistan and Afghanistan will always remain neighbors.
The road to full withdrawal of the allied forces and ultimate peace in Afghanistan is not an easy road to walk on. There may be hurdles on this bumpy road and the parties need to adopt pragmatic approach to achieve the objectives.
The Afghan war has been a stalemate for more than 18 years with Taliban forces controlling more territory yet unable to capture and hold major urban centres. The war gave Afghan people nothing but destruction and death. The way they fought the foreign forces and poverty remains a episode to quote whenever some foreign aggression is discussed amongst the generations to come.
The agreement the US has been a party to which, itself suggests the other nations not to invade Afghan soil at least. The US fought this meaningless war for 18 years and it will take 18 more years to count the losses of this adventure.
All the parties to the peace agreement and the other stakeholders must act in the direction of peace in Afghanistan so that a full withdrawal of all US and coalition forces could occur within 14 months and Afghanistan is run by its own people towards a stable and prosperous country. It is all necessary that dividend of the peace efforts reach to the Afghan people first and then to the neighbouring countries and the whole world. But commitment to the objective is a must.
