KANDAHAR, May 6: Taliban dismissed on Sunday a planned traditional gathering between Afghanistan and Pakistan on the insurgency, saying it was an attempt to ‘deceive’ ordinary Afghans.
President Hamid Karzai announced last week that the two neighbours would hold the gathering, called a jirga, on August 1.
It is intended to bring together about 700 tribal leaders, politicians and academics from both sides to find a way to tackle the growing Taliban-led insurgency.
“It’s an attempt by Karzai’s government to deceive people,” said a Taliban statement read over the telephone by one of the rebels’ spokesmen.
“But Afghans know this and will never accept it. Afghans are thinking about freedom and will gain their freedom,” read the spokesman, Yousuf Ahamdi.
FRENCH HOSTAGE: In a related development, Taliban extended the deadline for demands to be met for the release of a French and three Afghan hostages until after the May 6 (Sunday) French presidential elections, said a spokesman.
“For the sake of the French nation we have extended the deadline for the hostage and his Afghan colleagues until the end of the French elections,” said spokesman Yousuf Ahmadi.
Mr Ahmadi did not give a new deadline, but said it would be “after the results of the French presidential elections.”
Terre d’Enfance (A World For Our Children) aid worker Eric Damfreville and three Afghans working with him were captured in south-west Afghanistan on April 3.—AFP/PPI
