ISLAMABAD: Afghan officials are due in Pakistan on Thursday to discuss reviving suspended peace talks with the Afghan Taliban, Pakistan's national security adviser said, days after Taliban attacks killed dozens of people in Kabul.
The attacks followed a change of leadership in the Afghan Taliban and have dashed any hopes of an immediate resumption of peace talks with the government.
The new Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansoor intends to send a message that there will be no letup in the insurgency.
The violence also prompted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani to launch a scathing attack on Pakistan, demanding that it take action against the Taliban after the bombings killed more than 50 people.
Many in Afghanistan accuse Pakistan of being host to Taliban bases that are used to plan attacks such as the bombings over the weekend. Pakistan, which faces its own Taliban insurgency, denies that it has actively allowed its territory to be used in this way.
Pakistan last month hosted inaugural talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban, who are fighting to re-establish hard-line Islamist rule more than 13 years after the US-led military intervention that toppled their regime.
“Our priority of course is reconciliation,” said Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs and National Security Sartaj Aziz.
The Afghan delegation will be led by Afghan Foreign Minister Salahuddin Rabbani and include National Security Adviser Hanif Atmar, acting Defence Minister Masoom Stanikzai and intelligence chief Rahmatullah Nabil.
Aziz told reporters that he understood Ghani's anger, and hoped to remove any “misunderstandings” during the talks.
“They are frustrated obviously because bomb blasts and peace talks can't go together,” said Aziz.
Three attacks last week shocked Kabul in their scope and brutality. A truck bomb exploded early Friday morning, flattening a city block and killing 15 people and wounding 240 as they slept, authorities said.
Hours later, a suicide bomber killed at least 20 cadets outside a police academy, while another 10 people died in an attack on a military camp used by US Army Special Forces. On Monday, an attack near Kabul's airport killed five people.
The Taliban claimed responsibility for most of the attacks.
Meanwhile, fighting in Baghlan between Afghan forces and the Taliban has killed two police officers, said Jaweed Basharat, the provincial police spokesman. He said the fighting in the Dahana-I-Ghori district began on Tuesday.
The Taliban, who regularly exaggerate their claims, issued a statement, claiming a much higher police casualties figure.
