Afghan crisis: Doha meet participants raise grave concerns over 'killings,' seek accelerated peace process

As the Doha talks on Afghanistan come to an end, envoys from the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Turkey and other states called for the need of accelerating the peace process as a very urgent and essential issue for negotiating concrete proposals from both sides.

New Delhi: As the Doha talks on Afghanistan come to an end, envoys from the United States, India, Pakistan, China, Turkey and other states called for the need of accelerating the peace process and for negotiating concrete proposals from both sides.

The Indian side was represented by the Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs (Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan), JP Singh.

The final statement was issued following talks in Qatar, where envoys met with Afghan government negotiators and Taliban representatives and urged the two parties to take steps to build confidence and accelerate efforts to reach a political settlement and a comprehensive ceasefire as soon as possible and also called for an immediate cessation of violence and attacks in and on the capitals of other governorates and cities.

They exchanged views with the two negotiating teams on the current challenges and opportunities, and reflect on the contributions the international community can make to the success of the peace process.

However, the Doha talks didn't see any major developments as the statement issued after the talks have no mention about the deadline or timeline for ending violence in the war-torn country or any concrete plans for humanitarian assistance. The envoys and the representatives further reaffirmed that they will not recognise any government in Afghanistan that is imposed through the use of military force and called for a stop to violence and attacks immediately in and against provincial capitals and other cities.

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With the US troops set to leave Afghanistan by the end of this month, the Taliban has gained momentum in the war-ravaged country and have taken control of about two-thirds of the country.

On Friday, after capturing two of the biggest Afghan cities Kandahar and Herat, the Taliban have now claimed that they have captured the Logar province too.

Meanwhile, as the Taliban continues to gain ground in Afghanistan and just weeks before the U.S. military is scheduled to complete its withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US announced that apart from the 650 troops in Kabul, it is deploying an additional 3,000 troops in Afghanistan to evacuate some personnel from the US embassy in Kabul and another 1,000 joint Army, Air Force personnel is to be stationed in Qatar.

Participants in the Doha talks that took place on August 11 and 12, raised grave concerns about reports from across Afghanistan concerning continued violence, large numbers of civilian casualties and extra-judicial killings and called for a halt to violence and attacks immediately in and against the provincial capitals and other cities, urging both sides to take steps to reach a political settlement and comprehensive ceasefire at the earliest.

They also committed to assisting in the reconstruction of Afghanistan once a viable political settlement is reached following good faith negotiations between the two sides.