Afghanistan Offers Taliban Power-Sharing Deal To End Violence: Report

Kabul: In a major development, the negotiators of the Afghanistan government in Qatar on Thursday offered a power-sharing deal with Taliban to end the ongoing violence in the country, news agency AFP reported.

“Yes, the government has submitted a proposal to Qatar as mediator. The proposal allows the Taliban to share power in return for a halt in violence in the country,” the source close to the news agency said.

The development comes hours after Taliban captured a provincial capital near Kabul earlier in the day. So far, it is the 10th such province the insurgents have taken over a weeklong blitz across Afghanistan as the US and NATO prepare to withdraw entirely from the country after decades of war.

The insurgents waved their white flags imprinted with a famous Islamic proclamation over the city of Ghazni, which is just 130 kilometers (80 miles) southwest of Afghanistan’s capital Kabul.

The decision to offer Taliban a power-sharing deal is being seen as a bowing down move by Afghanistan which has been blown to smithereens as the fighting goes on without a sign of it abating.

(This is a developing story. More details awaited.)