PESHAWAR, Dec 29: Taliban supreme commander Mulla Mohammed Omar has rejected efforts for constituting jirgas to stem growing insurgency in Afghanistan and said these were part of a plan by occupation powers to “entangle the people in their devious trap”.

In a signed statement sent to Dawn on the eve of Eidul Azha, the reclusive Taliban leader said he was confident that no Muslim would take part in any jirgas constituted by what he called foreign aggressors and their proxies.

“Anyone participating in such jirgas would be doing so in his own individual capacity and will not be representing the tribes,” he said in the statement issued by the Taliban’s media department.

The statement pours cold water on US-backed efforts by Pakistan and Afghanistan to constitute tribal jirgas on both sides of the border in an effort to stem violence and bring stability to the volatile south and southeastern Afghanistan.

"I expect all Muslims to beware of conspiracies and devious plans,” said the Taliban leader, who went into hiding after his government was driven out of power in 2001.

He lauded his fighters and urged them to refrain from activities that brought death and injury to innocent people.

Media reports put the total number of civilians killed in the bloody insurgency in Afghanistan at more than one thousand while the total number of deaths of military personnel, government functionaries, Taliban insurgents and civilians is estimated to be around three thousand.