Kabul: The Taliban demanded a new constitution for Afghanistan and promised an “inclusive Islamic system” to govern the war-torn country at a rare gathering with senior Afghan politicians in Russia Tuesday that excluded the Kabul government.
The insurgents’ manifesto, outlined in Moscow before some of Afghanistan’s most influential leaders, comes a week after the Taliban held unprecedented six-day talks with US negotiators in Doha about ending the 17-year war.
The Doha and Moscow discussions, though entirely separate, both excluded the government in Kabul, where President Ashraf Ghani is seen as increasingly sidelined from key negotiations for peace in his country.
The Moscow meeting, the Taliban’s most significant with Afghan politicians in recent memory, saw the insurgents praying together with sworn enemies including former President Hamid Karzai as they discussed their vision for the future.
“The Kabul government constitution is invalid. It has been imported from the West and is an obstacle to peace,” Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, who headed the Taliban delegation, told attendees at a central Moscow hotel.
“It is conflicted. We want an Islamic constitution,” he said, adding that the new charter would be drafted by Islamic scholars.
No representatives from the Kabul government were invited to Moscow but some of Ghani’s chief rivals including Karzai as well as opponents in an election slated for July were in attendance.
Taliban hits army base, kills 26 troops
Kabul: The Taliban launched a pre-dawn attack on an army base in northern Afghanistan Tuesday, killing 26 members of the security forces, a provincial official said, the latest brazen assault by insurgents amid stepped-up efforts to resolve the country’s protracted war.
The Taliban stormed the base, located on the outskirts of the provincial capital, Kunduz city, around 2 am, said Mohammad Yusouf Ayubi, head of the provincial council. There were at least 23 soldiers and three members of the local police force among those slain.
According to Ayubi, 12 troops were wounded in the Taliban onslaught, which lasted for over two hours until reinforcements arrived at the besieged base and the attackers were repelled.