No progress?: ‘Afghan talks will fail without all groups’

If any group is isolated or ignored, that group then becomes the centre of the resistance, says Ghairat Baheer. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

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 most notorious insurgent 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-i-Islami, told Reuters in Islamabad.

Baheer, who was held in US detention at Bagram Air Field, north of Kabul, for six years until his 2008 release, also asserted that 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.”

Hizb-i-Islami shares some of the Afghan Taliban’s anti-foreigner, anti-government aims, and wants to oust international forces. 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, bordering Pakistan, and in the north.

“There is communication, and there is negotiation going on between Hizb-i-Islami and the American and Afghan governments,” said Baheer, Hekmatyar’s son-in-law.

“There should be a comprehensive solution involving all parties and groups,” said Baheer, a doctor by training.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 20^th, 2012.