Taliban delegation meets Pak FM, discusses Afghan peace process

A high-level Taliban delegation on Thursday morning met Pakistan Foreign Ministry Shah Mahmood Qureshi and discussed the Afghan peace process and other issues of mutual interest.

Inter-Services Intelligence Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, Foreign Affairs Secretary Sohail Mahmood and other foreign officials were also present during the meeting, Dawn reported.

"Both countries are equally facing the consequences of instability in Afghanistan over the past 40 years," Qureshi was reported as telling the delegation.

The armed group's delegation was led by their deputy leader Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar.

The delegation landed in Islamabad on Wednesday- hours after the United States Special Envoy for Afghan Peace Zalmay Khalilzad reached Islamabad.

On September 22, Khalilzad had called upon Prime Minister Imran Khan, who was in America then, and had discussed the ongoing situation in Afghanistan and the apparent dissolution of the Afghan peace process

However, Afghan legitimate government is sceptical about Pakistan new approach and called the Taliban a proxy of Islamabad.

"The Taliban are a proxy of Pakistan, of not just of Pakistan, but Pakistan's intelligence agency. Afghanistan would never accept to be ruled by Pakistanis," Afghan National Security Advisor (NSA) Hamdullah Mohib.