Pakistan said the spike in deadly terrorist attacks across Afghanistan, which Islamabad condemns, underscores the need for peace talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. “We very much condemn all the terrorist attacks in Kabul and other parts of Afghanistan and we have constantly worked with the Afghan government to try to restrict movements across the borders so that no terrorist goes from here to commit any act there,” Pakistan’s national security adviser Sartaj Aziz is quoted as saying. He said Pakistan can persuade the Taliban to re-engage in talks with the Afghan government only after the group resolves its leadership problem.

Following the deadly attacks in Kabul, the tension soared between Afghanistan and Pakistan and President Muhammad Ashraf Ghani and Chief Executive Officer Abdullah Abdullah lashed out at Pakistan. Therefore, Afghanistan’s High Peace Council (HPC) members called on the international community to supervise the peace talks as they believe that without this the talks between Afghanistan and the Taliban will not succeed. Qazi Mohammad Amin Waqad, a member of the HPC believed that if UN leads peace talk in Pakistan and China with its presence, the Taliban will also show resilience and then the international community can monitor the talks – that will be fruitful. He also asserted that the Taliban had no authority and were unable to make decisive decisions. “If one day they are invited to talks and the other day to bombing, this will never work,” he maintained.

Off late, the Taliban’s internal conflict over the succession of the late Mullah Omar, which stalled peace talk, was a highly controversial issue and loomed large in national and international media. Many Taliban elements churned out to a large extent against and in favor of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor as Omar’s successor.  With the introduction of Mansoor as Omar’s succession, a conflict surfaced among the Taliban militants – who were operating under a single banner. As a result, the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) has already been divided into two groups, insiders say. “Musa Aaqa, who is leading Tahir Jan Yuldashev’s group, has pledged allegiance to Mullah Mansoor,” said a source, “and Abdul Aziz Yaldiv and his companions have joined the IS.” Similarly, a number of the Taliban insurgents are also said to have sworn allegiance to the IS group in Afghanistan. Hence, this is a severe blow to the Taliban which has led to their split.  Currently, the Taliban, al-Qaeda and some foreign politicians behind smokescreen endeavor to bring the splinter group back under the same banner. As a result, it was reported that Al-Qaeda’s leader Ayman al-Zawahiri on Thursday pledged his group’s allegiance to Mansoor – who is facing a bitter struggle over his leadership. “As emir of Al-Qaeda, I pledge to you our allegiance, following the path of Sheikh (Osama) bin Laden and his martyred brothers in their allegiance to Mullah Omar,” Zawahiri is quoted as saying in a recording.

Mansoor, a longtime trusted deputy of Omar, is taking charge as the movement faces growing internal divisions and is threatened by the rise of the self-styled Islamic State (IS) group, which is making inroads in Afghanistan.

Zawahiri’s pledge comes as Al-Qaeda also faces a growing rivalry for preeminence in the global jihadist movement with IS, which has seized control of large parts of Syria and Iraq. Moreover, with the first emergence of IS group, Zawahiri called it a religious radical and expressed his hatred to that. In other words, al-Qaeda and Taliban share common ideology, however the IS’s ideology is far more extreme.

However, it is believed that the Taliban and al-Qaeda compete with IS in killing the innocent civilians in Afghanistan and their ideology is as radical as IS. Recently, the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) said that in their latest findings for the first six months of this year, UNAMA’s 2015 Midyear Report on Protection of Civilians in Armed Conflict documented 4,921 civilian casualties. Of those were 1,592 deaths and 3,329 injured between January and June. This is a one percent increase against the same period last year. However, in the first six months of 2015, UNAMA documented a 23 percent increase in women casualties and a 13 percent increase in children casualties. Based on this report, the vast majority – or 90 per cent – of civilian casualties resulted from ground engagements, improvised explosive devices, complex and suicide attacks and targeted killings.  “Until peace is achieved, all parties to the conflict must fulfill their obligations under international humanitarian law to minimize the impact of the conflict on civilians and match their public statements on the protection of civilians with concrete actions,” UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative for Afghanistan, Nicholas Haysom said. He further stated that anti-government elements continued to cause the most harm despite a slight reduction in total civilian casualties. UNAMA attributed 70 per cent of civilian casualties to their activities.

The Taliban’s dual policy i.e. carrying out terrorist acts on the one hand and sitting on the table of negotiation on the other hand has prompted fury among the Afghan officials. Hence, peace talk remains in ambiguity and less hopeful. The question is that if even the Taliban elements resume peace talks with the leadership of Mullah Akhtar Mansoor, will not the splinter group continue militancy in Afghanistan? I believe that they are the real “detractor and spoiler” and Omar’s demise was a real tragedy for the Taliban. Isn’t it time to end this interminably political game – which has never born the desired fruit?