Toll from last week’s Afghan bombing passes 150

At least 10 people were killed and several injured in a bomb explosion near a mosque in Herat in Afghanistan.

The situation in the country continues to be tense. This internal blame-game is not only weakening the NUG, but also providing a base to the Taliban’s claim that they are not involved.

But the Afghanistan Cricket Board issued a strongly worded statement late on Wednesday, cancelling the matches in light of a truck bombing in the city’s diplomatic quarter that killed at least 90 people.

President Ghani said past year his country “no longer expects Pakistan to bring the Taliban to the negotiating table”.

He spoke of his desire to make peace with the Taliban.

Peace talks with the insurgent group have faltered, and the Taliban said Tuesday that it will negotiate directly with the government only after foreign troops leave Afghanistan.

Ghani added that Afghanistan’s other Asian neighbors must also play a role.

While offering peace talks to the Islamist insurgency, Ghani reiterated his preconditions, including recognition of the Afghan constitution, continuity of the reforms of educating and advancing the rights of women, and renunciation of violence and linkages with terrorist groups.

“This can not continue. We will not let it continue”.

So we again call on the Government of Pakistan to propose its agenda and a mechanism for that dialogue which can lead us to peace and prosperity, the Afghan president suggested. We want to be able to trust Pakistan.

The conference will be attended by a host of nations, including the United States, India, China and regional nemesis Pakistan, which Afghanistan has long blamed for sponsoring the resurgent Taliban.

“I extended a hand of friendship towards Pakistan under hard environment, but it was rejected”, he recalled. Pakistan denies the charge.

Rabbani survived an attack at the funeral of one of the protesters on Saturday where suicide bombers tore through a row of mourners.

The conference, which will focus on counter-terrorism, really needs to help the Afghans come to a political consensus to form a better or even a new government in Kabul that can win back public trust.

He also called on the global community to make good on its promise to end state sponsorship of terrorism.

Ghani was addressing representatives from about two dozen countries and worldwide organizations at a one-day peace conference called the Kabul Process. It was the deadliest single attack in 16 years since the US invaded to topple the Taliban. Ghani said that over the past two years as many as 11,000 foreign fighters have joined the group.