Islamabad, Sept. 18 (ANI): A senior Afghan Taliban leader has warned of a possible civil war in Afghanistan following the withdrawal of U.S.-led coalition forces.
Mullah Agha Jan Mutasim, who once headed the powerful political commission of the Afghan Taliban, said Afghanistan has bled for over three decades because "alien conspirators" used the Afghans against each other, reports The Express Tribune. He, however, did not name any foreign country.
Mutasim said U.S.-led NATO troops are pulling out and if the Afghans could not reach any agreement before 2014, they would be pushed into another civil war. Afghanistan had slid into a deadly civil war following the withdrawal of the then Soviet forces in the late 1980s.
According to Afghan sources, Mutasim has initiated efforts to unite some former senior Taliban cadres in a bid to launch a peace initiative.
Mutasim recently visited an Arab country to meet a group of Taliban leaders who are willing to join the reconciliation process. He is also said to have offered to play a role in the Saudi peace initiative, sources said.
Mutasim called for a broad-based intra-Afghan dialogue, urging all stakeholders to cease hostilities. So far, the Taliban have rejected the possibility of any dialogue with the Karzai government.
"Alien enemy has taken advantage of the internal rift of Afghans and the time has come for the latter to learn a lesson from the bitter experiences of the past and reach an understanding," Mutasim said in a statement. He said Afghans should now accept, accommodate and forgive each other, and work for national unity.
It is the first time a senior Taliban leader has called for a ceasefire and an intra-Afghan dialogue.
Before Mutasim, former prime minister and chief of Hizb-e-Islami, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, had also warned of a possible civil war in Afghanistan, earlier this year. (ANI)
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