Will persuade Taliban to hold talks with Afghan govt: Imran Khan

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday said that he would meet representatives of Taliban after his return home from the US to persuade them to initiate talks with the Afghanistan government.

"I will meet the Taliban and try my best to get them to talk to the Afghan government. The election in Afghanistan must be an inclusive election where Taliban also participates," Khan said at the US Institute of Peace here.

Khan said that a delegation of Taliban had wished to meet him after he became the Prime Minister, but he refused to meet the group because the Afghan government at that point did not want him to.

It may be noted that the Taliban have consistently refused to hold direct talks with President Ashraf Ghani's government, denouncing it as a puppet administration.

An earlier round of intra-Afghan talks, which were to be held in April, was called off after the Taliban did not agree on the list of Kabul officials who were supposed to attend the peace talks.

The group, however, recently agreed to hold talks with a delegation of 50 members from the Afghan political elites, civil society members, youths and journalists in Qatar's capital city of Doha.