Pressmediaofindia
Related Articles
02 March, 2020
By SJA Jafri + Agencies
ISLAMABAD/ WASHINGTON/ KABUL: At least three people have been killed and 11 wounded in an explosion in Afghanistan’s eastern Khost province.
“A motorcycle rigged with a bomb exploded during a football match,” said Sayed Ahmad Babazai, a police chief in the area.
The bomb detonated near a football pitch in Nadir Shah Kot district on Monday afternoon, the provincial governor’s spokesman Talib Khan Mangal told Afghan media.
No group immediately claimed responsibility for the attack.
The bombing comes after the Taliban said it was resuming offensive operations against Afghan security forces, ending the “reduction in violence” agreement that preceded the signing of a deal between the armed group and the United States.
Under the deal signed on Saturday, foreign forces will withdraw from Afghanistan within 14 months, subject to Taliban security guarantees and a pledge by the group to hold talks with the Kabul government.
The Taliban are to resume attacks against government forces, just days after signing a deal with the US aimed at bringing peace to Afghanistan.
The hard-line Islamist group had observed a “reduction in violence” in the week leading up to the agreement.
The deal included a commitment to hold peace talks with the Afghan government but the group’s spokesman said on Monday the talks would not go ahead if 5,000 Taliban prisoners held by the government were not released.
The release formed part of the agreement signed on Saturday in Qatar with the US but on Sunday, Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani told reporters his government had agreed to no such release.
“There is no commitment to releasing 5,000 prisoners,” Ghani said. “This is the right and the self-will of the people of Afghanistan. It could be included in the agenda of the intra-Afghan talks, but cannot be a prerequisite for talks.”
The Taliban have previously refused to negotiate with the Afghan government, so Saturday’s deal was just with the US, which invaded Afghanistan weeks after the September 2001 attacks in New York by al-Qaeda, then based in Afghanistan.
Meanwhile, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told news agency Reuters they would not take part in talks with the government unless the release went ahead.
“We are fully ready for the intra-Afghan talks, but we are waiting for the release of our 5,000 prisoners,” he said. “If our 5,000 prisoners – 100 or 200 more or less does not matter – do not get released there will be no intra-Afghan talks.”
‘As per the (US-Taliban) agreement, our mujahideen will not attack foreign forces but our operations will continue against the Kabul administration forces,’ says Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid.
An estimated 10,000 captured Taliban are being held in Afghanistan.
An expert journalist says it’s not yet clear if the Taliban will now resume fighting – or if this is an attempt to pressurize the government into releasing the detainees.
General Scott Miller, the US forces commander in Afghanistan, said the reduction in violence “was a confidence builder”, adding: “We’re very serious about our obligations and we expect the Taliban will be serious about their obligations.
