Taliban’s former minister was murdered on Monday in Pakistan’s northwest city of Peshawar. “Armed assailants riding on a motorbike shot Mullah Abdul Raqeeb, a former minister for refugees during the Taliban regime, killing him on the spot,” a member of the Afghan Taliban in Pakistan told AFP. This is indeed continuation of targeted killing of Taliban leaders and commanders who reside in Pakistan but have been in contact with the Afghan government, especially over the so-called peace process.
While for the Afghan people and anti-Taliban groups Mullah Raqeeb’s murder is simply a killing of a killer, President Hamid Karzai has condemned his assassination in strong words. “He was a supporter of peace and reconciliation and had just returned from Dubai after attending peace talks when he was killed in Peshawar”, a statement issued by President’s office read. The statement has indirectly regarded Mullah Raqeeb as a supporter of peace and stability.
President Karzai refers Taliban as his annoyed brothers. But Mullah Raqeeb was more than that. It seems so. He was not annoyed as he had recently sat with members of High Peace Council (HPC) in Dubai to discuss peace negotiations. Such Taliban have more respect and value in the eyes of the Afghan government.
The current government has been sympathetic to Taliban, a sympathy which they can find only in Afghanistan, not elsewhere. In Pakistan certain Taliban leaders have been assassinated over the past few years.
In 2010, Taliban’s former No. 2 Mullah Abdul Ghani Bradar was arrested in Pakistan. In September last year, the Pakistani government said it has released Baradar. The Afghan government had time and again requested for his release, hoping he could largely help in moving the peace process at least one step forward. But its hope faded away when an HPC delegation who had gone to Islamabad to meet Baradar found him severely sick and incapable of speaking.
Thus, the Taliban are not independent to talk peace with the Afghan government. No matter how much sympathy the government shows for Taliban, it is not going to help the peace process. Government has to come with a better strategy towards the reconciliation process as sympathy alone would not solve the issue.