KABUL // Talks last week between Afghan and Taliban negotiators were hailed by officials as a major breakthrough, but insurgent commanders on the ground have responded far more sceptically.
Members of the Afghan high peace council sat down with Taliban cadres last week in Murree, in the hills north of Islamabad, for their first official talks to try to end the militants’ bloody fight.
They agreed to meet again in the coming weeks.
But while some commanders voiced optimism, many others were deeply wary.
The split in responses, with some commanders openly questioning the legitimacy of the Taliban negotiators in Murree, underscores the potentially dangerous faultlines within the movement. Haji Hazrat, a Taliban leader based in the movement’s historic heartland of Helmand, “strongly backed” the talks and was optimistic about the outcome.
But in the eastern province of Kunar, a hot spot for fighting in recent years close to the Pakistani border, commander Ershad Gazi dismissed the Murree delegation as puppets of Islamabad.
“These Taliban leaders were not truly representing the Taliban group — they were brought to the meeting by Pakistan. The real Taliban who have influence on the talks are based in Qatar,” said Mr Gazi, who leads hundreds of fighters.
The Taliban set up an office in Qatar in 2013 to begin talks towards a peace deal to end their 14-year insurgency.
The Taliban high command has neither welcomed nor condemned the talks.
And there has been no word from Mullah Omar, the enigmatic Taliban chief who has not been seen in public since the 2001 US-led invasion of Afghanistan.
The death of the one-eyed warrior-cleric has been rumoured several times in recent years but never confirmed.
This silence has disgruntled front line commanders, desperate for confirmation their leader is still alive and also a clear signal on the group’s position on peace talks.
Graeme Smith, an Afghanistan expert at the International Crisis Group in Kabul, said the command’s refusal to unequivocally own the talks weakened the process.
He also said the absence of a “visible charismatic leader” in Mullah Omar was hurting the Taliban.
In the absence of a clear lead from the top, some fighters fall back on the Taliban’s traditional position — that there can be no meaningful talks until all foreign forces leave Afghan soil.
Nato ended its combat mission in Afghanistan at the end of December but a smaller residual force remains in the country to train Afghan forces, due to leave altogether by the end of 2016.
“We come to the negotiations table only when the entire foreign troops leave Afghanistan,” said Minhaj, a commander of about 200 men in the province of Kandahar, said.
Divides within the Taliban between those for and against talks has been made worse by the emergence of a local branch of the ISIL.
The Taliban warned ISIL last month against expanding in the region, but this has not stopped some fighters defecting to join ISIL.
If the Taliban faultlines widen, there is a danger the talks process could drive more of its hardline fighters into the arms of ISIL.
* Agence France-Presse
