Some 250 Afghan Representatives To Attend Talks With Taliban On April 19-21 - Reports

The government of Afghanistan on Tuesday released a list of 250 people that will take part in negotiations with the Taliban movement in Qatar, local media reported, citing Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a deputy to the presidential spokesperson

MOSCOW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 16th April, 2019) The government of Afghanistan on Tuesday released a list of 250 people that will take part in negotiations with the Taliban movement in Qatar, local media reported, citing Shah Hussain Murtazawi, a deputy to the presidential spokesperson.

The talks will be held on April 19-21 in the Qatari capital of Doha uniting the representatives of Taliban radical movement and the Afghan officials.

According to Khaama Press, Murtazawi, who presented the list, stressed that it included various political and religious figures as well as journalists, youths, members of the civil society, governmental officials and families of victims. The news outlet noted that the list also included 52 women. It is the first time women will join the Taliban delegation at the Afghan peace talks.

Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Hezb-e-Islami party's leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar were not included in the list, the agency added.

The upcoming negotiations will follow similar talks that took place in Moscow on February 5-6 and were attended by Afghan political leaders, including Karzai, and representatives of the political office of the Taliban in Qatar. The talks ended with a declaration in which the sides outlined the desire for officials of the Afghan government to attend the second round of the negotiations. It also stipulated that Taliban leaders should be removed from international "blacklists" and expressed the need to end the war in Afghanistan.

Afghanistan has long been in a state of turmoil, with the government fighting the Taliban radical movement, which has been holding vast territories in rural areas under its control and regularly launches offensives in key big cities. The situation has been exacerbated by the activities of the Islamic State terrorist group (IS, banned in Russia), which has been operating in Afghanistan since 2015.