Karzai lures pro-Taliban Pakistani religious leader to Kabul

Beleaguered Afghan President Hamid Karzai succeeded to lure a pro-Taliban Pakistani religious leader Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman, to visit Kabul at his invitation when Karzai is anxiously trying to talk to the Taliban. 

Taliban consider him as a U.S. puppet and have rejected his appeals for intra-Afghan dialogue.

Fazal, Chief of his own faction of Jamiat ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) visited Karzai at his office shortly after the Maulana arrived in Kabul in a mysterious way as his party's spokesman kept the media in dark about the departure. 

The two leaders discussed cooperation against terrorism and extremism, Karzai's office said.

“Both leaders discussed ways to get rid of the threats of terrorism and extremism faced by the two countries,” Karzai’s office said.

“Both stressed for cooperation of the two countries against terrorism,” said a statement from the presidential palace, received here.

They also reviewed expansion of brotherly relations between Pakistan and Afghanistan, it said.

Maulana Fazal-ur-Rehman arrived in Kabul on the invitation from the Afghan President Hamid Karzai, the presidential palace said.

The JUI-F chief, leading a five delegation, proceeded to Kabul after a stopover at Dubai, where he will also meet other leaders and members of the peace council.

The JUI-F had kept the departure quite and the party’s spokesman, Jan Muhammad Achakzai, said in a recent tweet the visit has been postponed due to Eid holidays.

Afghan Taliban condemned Fazal visit and described it as a move to stab at their back at a time when foreign troops are leaving the country after nearly 12 years of Friday angrily reacted to the visit of Maulana Fazal ur Rehman to Kabul and said his trip has shocked thousands who were killed during Karzai’s rule.

“We are really shocked and did not expect a senior religious leader like Maulana Fazal ur Rehman will visit Kabul at a time when the country is under occupation of infidel troops,” a senior Afghan Taliban leader said.

The delegation includes Maulana Abdul Wasi, a JUI-F MPA in Balochistan, the party leader Gul Naseb Khan and Fazal’s spokesman Mufti Ibrar.

“Karzai also succeeded to trap the honorable Pakistani leader to invite him at a time when he has just few months in power and he will use the visit against the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,” the Taliban figure said, while requesting not to be identified as the Taliban do not want to make public comment on the visit of a third court.

He said Karzai and his aides, after failing to lure the Afghan Taliban, had tried to invite religious leaders from Pakistan and other Islamic countries to mount pressure on the Taliban.

“We had praised the Pakistani religious scholars who had rejected a proposal by Kabul regime for a joint ‘uleme’ conference in Afghanistan earlier this year,” the Taliban official said.

The JUI-F spokesman had earlier issued a statement about the visit but later remained quite either to share the exact date or details of the trip.

Sources said the JUI leaders will also meet Chairman of the High Peace Council, Salahuddin Rabbani, and some other leaders during the three-day visit to discuss the party’s role in the peace process.

Fazal had previously visited Qatar to meet Taliban representatives there however there had been conflicting claims about any meeting took place between the two sides. JUI-F sources in Pakistan had claimed Maulana had met some Taliban leaders, however, the Taliban sources had stated that Taliban had refused to meet him.