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Talk to Taliban, Owais Ghani implores West
Balochistan Governor Owais Ahmed Ghani has said the Afghan government and its Western allies should seek a ceasefire and negotiate a peace with the Taliban. You cant slaughter all of them, said Ghani. He warned that radical groups would only gain more strength if fighting was not stopped in Afghanistan. There has to be, eventually, some sort of a political accommodation or solution or something, whatever, he told Reuters in an interview. Of course, a ceasefire has to be tried and then a political process should be launched or these can be done simultaneously. Afghan officials say most militants fighting in the insurgency come from sanctuaries on Pakistani territory and they have singled out Quetta, capital of Balochistan, as a base for Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar and his cohorts. Ghani rejected the allegations as a ploy to malign and defame Pakistan. There is no organised Taliban activity or any other militant activity in Balochistan which relates to Afghanistan. There are no camps, no training camps, no dumps. There is nothing like that, Ghani said. Ghani said most of the security problems in his vast, rugged province were caused by instability in Afghanistan. A suicide bomber killed at least 16 people in a Quetta courtroom on February 17. Ghani said a series of suicide attacks across the country in recent weeks, including the one in Quetta, were carried out by militants linked to the Taliban. Posted by: Fred 2007-02-25 |
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