Afghan high peace council: Negotiators prolong stay to meet Baradar

Foreign ministry, Afghan embassy tight-lipped about the visit.

ISLAMABAD: Afghan government-backed peace negotiators are in Islamabad for a ‘secret’ meeting with the senior Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, The Express Tribune has learnt.

The delegation arrived in a special plane on Tuesday, sources privy to the visit said.

“The delegation was scheduled to depart for Kabul on Wednesday afternoon, but the visit was extended and it would now leave on Thursday (today),” diplomatic sources said. “The visit was extended to accommodate more meetings.”

It was not clear if the peace negotiators met Baradar. Official sources confirmed the visit but did not give any details.

The foreign ministry, the Afghan embassy in Islamabad and the Peace Council, were all tight-lipped on the visit and refused to comment officially on the visit.

“Baradar had refused [to broker peace] when he was asked for it repeatedly during his detention,” a Taliban official told The Express Tribune on condition of anonymity. He said there were possibilities that Baradar could be forced to meet the Afghan delegation but the ‘mastermind of such a meeting’ should not expect anything.

“They decided to travel to Pakistan this month with a broader peace agenda,” a peace council member said. He said the council’s members had agreed that the visit should not be limited only to a meeting with Baradar.

The Pakistan foreign office had been insisting that Kabul had not yet officially contacted Islamabad for the peace council’s visit.

Afghan government believes that Mullah Baradar enjoys so much respect among the Taliban that he could play an effective role in the peace process.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 21^st, 2013.