Taliban delegation arrives in Pakistan for dialogue

Establishing first contact after the breakdown of talks backed by Islamabad between Kabul and the Taliban in May, a three-member delegation from the Taliban's Qatar office is currently in Pakistan to meet authorities.

The visit comes days after Taliban leaders reportedly held informal meetings with Afghan and US officials in Qatar.

"The delegates - Maulvi Shahabuddin Dilawar, Maulvi Salam Hanafi and Jan Muhammad - have been in Pakistan for the past two days," a government official confirmed to Dawn.

Two of the men served as ministers in Afghanistan's Taliban-led government, while the third one is a former Taliban ambassador to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.

Pakistan has hosted several rounds of talks over the last year to jumpstart peace negotiations between the two sides, but dialogue came to a halt earlier this year when former Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour was killed in a drone strike in Balochistan.

A few days ago, security forces raided a seminary in Quetta and arrested a Taliban commander, Mullah Abdul Samad Sani, Reuters quoted a Taliban member as saying.