ISLAMABAD: Peace efforts in Afghanistan are likely to fail if they do not include all militant groups, a senior member of one of the country’s militant factions said on Sunday.
“If any group is isolated or ignored, that group then becomes the centre of the resistance, and can cause problems,” Ghairat Baheer of Hizb-e-Islami told Reuters in Islamabad.
“To bring instability or disturb the situation of Afghanistan is not difficult. It is very easy.”
Hizb-e-Islami shares some of the Afghan Taliban’s anti-foreigner, anti-government aims and wants to oust US-led forces from the country.
The group, led by Afghan warlord and former prime minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, claims to have thousands of fighters in its ranks, based mainly in Afghanistan’s restive east and in the north.
The US State Department lists Mr Hekmatyar as a ‘terrorist’ for supporting Taliban and Al Qaeda attacks, but US and Afghan officials have met Hizb-e-Islami representatives in the last two months to help end the war, now in its eleventh year.
“There is communication, and there is negotiation going on between Hizb-e-Islami and the American and Afghan governments,” said Mr Baheer, Mr Hekmatyar’s son-in-law.
In the early 1990s, forces led by Mr Hekmatyar opposed to the government of then president Burhanuddin Rabbani took part in fighting in Kabul which is thought to have killed tens of thousands.
Mr Hekmatyar left Afghanistan in the mid-1990s and his whereabouts have been unclear since then.
The Afghan Taliban announced last month they would open a political office in Qatar, suggesting the group may be willing to engage in negotiations to bring peace to the war-torn country.
While the Taliban are the focus of media attention, there are a number of other militant organisations that want a say in Afghanistan’s future.
They include the Al Qaeda-linked Haqqani group, one of the most feared Afghan militant groups blamed for many high-profile bombings against US and Nato-led forces in Afghanistan.
While the Haqqani group has pledged allegiance to the Taliban leadership, it also exercises significant operational independence.
Failure to appease these militant groups could bring prolonged instability, or even civil war, once US-led Nato combat forces withdraw in 2014.
“There should be a comprehensive solution involving all parties and groups,” said Mr Baheer, a doctor by training.
Mr Baheer, who was held in US detention at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul, for six years until his release in 2008, said he had not seen enough progress in US-Taliban talks to suggest they were any closer to formal negotiations.
“So far they have not been able to agree on even minor issues that could be taken as goodwill gestures. There’s no official inauguration of the (Taliban) office, there is no release of prisoners and no one has been removed from the blacklist,” he said.
“Things are stuck. We are also in a wait-and-see situation.”—Reuters
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