The head of the Taliban’s Qatar-based political office has stepped down, a statement said, a high-profile resignation within leadership ranks highlighting growing discord over the movement’s recent power transition. Mullah Akhtar Mansour was announced as the new Taliban chief on Friday after the insurgents confirmed the death of Mullah Omar, who led the militant movement for some 20 years.But splits immediately emerged between Mansour and rivals challenging his appointment, exposing the Taliban’s biggest leadership crisis in recent years and one that raises the risk of a factional split. Underscoring the deepening internal divisions, Tayeb Agha stepped down on Monday as head of the Taliban’s political office, set up in Qatar in 2013 to facilitate peace talks, according to a statement. This has also posed a severe threat to Kabul-Taliban talks faciliated by Pakistan. Now it is of utmost importance that all the stakeholders should realize the gravity of the situation and work for facilitating peace rather than further complicating the issues. It was due to persistent efforts of Pakistani government and some friends of Pakistan and Afghanistan abroad that the Taliban had formally face-to-face meeting with Afghan government officials in the presence of representatives from Pakistan, China and the United States. That was the most important development for bringing peace after the US forces entered in Afghanistan in 2001. The second round, which was expected to be productive one, as both the sides were to present their proposals and demands, had to be postponed on the request of Taliban, as the report of death of Mullah Omer was leaked out. Though all sorts of speculations are making round, but most of the analysts believe that it was RAW, that through its sources leaked the report to damage the peace process because India felt humiliation as it has been sidelined. There are elements in Afghan government who still have their loyalties with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who throughout his tenure played to the tune of New Delhi for reasons known to him and these Afghan officials, to sow the seeds of discord, have regularly been airing their views about sincerity of Pakistan for peace in Afghanistan. Therefore, in the given situation it is necessary that the United States should stop the drone attacks in Afghanistan and Pakistan, if it is genuinely interested to see peace in the country for which President Ashraf Ghani has a lot at stake and Afghans have been yearning for over three decades.
