Afghan delegation departs for Qatar to hold talks with Pakistani delegation
An Afghan delegation has departed for Qatar to hold talks with a Pakistani delegation amid ongoing hostilities between the two countries, Zabiullah Mujahid, the spokesperson for the Taliban government, said on Saturday.
In a post on social media platform X, Mujahid said, “As it was promised that negotiations would be held with the Pakistani side, a high-level delegation of the Islamic Emirate, led by the Minister of Defence Maulvi Sahib Muhammad Yaqub Mujahid, left for Doha today.”
Reports from Afghanistan suggest that the Taliban delegation would include intelligence chief, Mullah Wasiq, besides the defence minister. Pakistan’s Foreign Office stayed silent on the matter, but a late-evening meeting between National Security Adviser and ISI chief Lt Gen Asim Malik and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar suggested that Gen Malik may travel to Doha.
While there was no official word from the government or military, security sources said Pakistan had again targeted terrorist hideouts in Afghanistan on Friday. Incidents were reported from the Angoor Adda region and across Afghanistan’s Urgun and Barmal districts of Paktika province, as security sources claimed that precision strikes were conducted against hideouts of the outlawed Hafiz Gul Bahadur group, reportedly killing dozens of fighters.
The attacks came on the heels of an attack targeting a military installation in North Waziristan, and just hours after Islamabad and Kabul extended a two-day ceasefire.
The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) also said that it was pulling out of a T20I tri-nations series scheduled to be held in Pakistan next month after alleging that three cricketers were killed in a strike.
The fresh exchanges on Friday night had cast a shadow over the ceasefire, which had been extended just a few hours earlier, as well as the planned Doha talks.
“The ceasefire has been mutually extended by both Pakistan and Afghanistan till the end of the talks in Doha, Qatar. The talks are ready to begin [on Saturday],” a security source said on Friday evening at the conclusion of the initial 48-hour truce, which had been in effect since Wednesday.
The two-day ceasefire was largely observed without violations, but the dialogue initially agreed at the time of its announcement, aimed at addressing what Pakistan’s Foreign Office described as a “complex but solvable issue”, failed to take place during that period.
Earlier in the day, at his weekly media briefing, outgoing Foreign Office spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan reiterated: “Afghanistan has become a central breeding ground for global terrorism.”
He warned the international community against complacency, adding, “We do not have to wait for a big disaster happening at the global scale before we take remedial action. This fire will spread. This has to be stopped.”
No bilateral initiative for talks emerged during the first phase of the truce. However, Qatar, which along with Saudi Arabia had pushed both sides to halt hostilities, offered to host their meeting in Doha. The talks, initially slated for Thursday or Friday, were postponed by a day due to logistical issues and reluctance within the Taliban leadership to engage, sources said.
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Global News 
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