KANDAHAR, Feb 26: Sixty Taliban, including a former provincial governor and a police chief, joined a reconciliation programme on Sunday in the southern city of Kandahar and agreed not to fight against the Afghan government, an official said.

Abdul Razzaq Khan, director of the reconciliation programme in this former Taliban stronghold, said the men would be given identity cards showing they’d signed up for the programme, and the government would be asked to find them jobs.

He said they included a former Taliban provincial governor in the north of the country who did not want to be identified; Mullah Shamir Aghund, former police chief of Jawzjan; and Mullah Mohammed Ali Aghund, a former district chief. “We don’t want to fight against the government or anybody,” said Mullah Mohammed Rasul Haidari, another of the reformed Taliban.—AP