KABUL: Five members of the Afghan Taliban, who had been freed from the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay in 2014 in exchange for captured American army sergeant Bowe Bergdahl, have joined the group’s political office in Qatar, said Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid on Tuesday.

All the five Taliban leaders, hailing from southern Afghanistan, will now be among those negotiating for peace in Afghanistan, a sign some negotiators in Kabul say indicates the Taliban’s desire for a peace pact. Others fear they bring with them the same ultraconservative interpretation of Islam, which characterised the group’s five-year rule that ended in 2001 with the US-led invasion, as they were close to the Taliban founder Mullah Mohammed Omar.

“The Taliban are bringing back their old generation, which means the Taliban have not changed their thinking or their leadership,” said Haroun Mir, political analyst in Kabul. “What we are more worried about is if tomorrow the Taliban say ‘we are ready to negotiate’, who will represent Kabul? That is the big challenge as the government is so divided, not just ideologically but on ethnic lines.”

However, Mohammad Ismail Qasimyar, a member of the Afghan government peace council, warned Washington against negotiating peace terms with the Taliban. He said US special envoy Zalmay Khalilzad’s only job was to set the stage for direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban. Taliban reported meeting with Mr Khalilzad in Qatar earlier this month, calling the exchange preliminary but pivotal. Washington neither confirmed nor denied the meeting though Khalilzad was in Qatar at the time.

A Taliban representative familiar with the discussions said talks ended with an agreement to meet again. Key among the Taliban’s requests was recognition of their Qatar office, he said on condition of anonymity.

In an unexpected development, Pakistan released senior Taliban leader, Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, who had been jailed in 2010 after he bypassed the Pakistan government to open independent peace talks with Afghan president Hamid Karzai, following the US special envoy Khalilzad’s visit to Islamabad early this month.

Hakim Mujahed, a former Taliban member who is now also a member of the Afghan government peace council, said the presence of the five former Guantanamo prisoners in the Taliban’s Qatar office indicated their resolve to find a peace deal. “These people are respected among all the Taliban,” said Mujahed. “Their word carries weight with the Taliban leadership and the mujahedeen.”

Published in Dawn, October 31st, 2018