Kabul on lockdown as assembly discusses peace with the Taliban

Afghanistan's usually bustling capital Kabul slowed to a crawl Tuesday amid massive security for a high-stakes peace summit that has previously been a target for insurgent attacks.

Police flooded the city and authorities blocked off key roads around the west Kabul venue of the so-called "loya jirga" -- where some 3,000 tribal elders, religious figures, and politicians from across Afghanistan are gathering over four days to discuss possible conditions for a peace deal with the Taliban.

Taliban suicide bombers armed with rockets and guns attacked a 2010 peace jirga at the same venue, and in 2011, two rockets were fired into Kabul during a two-day jirga.

Despite such past attacks, Kabul residents are infuriated with the scale of the lockdown, which has already been blamed for at least one death and has paralysed businesses in what would ordinarily be a busy week before Ramadan begins.

Local media reported that a newborn baby died when the father, who was trying to take the infant to a hospital, was blocked by security forces.

"The little baby should not have died," Afghanistan's chief executive Abdullah Abdullah said.

"We are actually here to serve the same people who die because of the roadblocks." Adding to the slowdown, authorities have declared a week-long public holiday in Kabul.

"Yesterday, I could only take two passengers from one part of the city to the other. It took me three hours to complete a 15-minute ride," Nasrullah, a taxi driver who gave only his first name, told AFP.

Shopkeeper Taj Mohammad said poor people had been hit particularly hard. "It is good to provide security for the participants, but that should not cost people's businesses," Mohammad said.

Siam Pasarly, an economics expert, estimated the holidays were costing the business community USD 1 million a day.

"Afghanistan is a developing country and its economic engine should be running all day," he said. "A week-long shutdown is like a poison to the economy."