Afghan peace conference kicks off in Tashkent in absence of Taliban

Kabul, 26 Mar 2018 [Fik/News Sources]: An international peace conference on Afghanistan will start on Monday in the Uzbek capital, Tashkent, but a powerful Afghani militant group has showed no sign of attending it so far.

The conference is part of international community’s efforts to end the conflict in Afghanistan and the aim is to bring peace to the war-torn country where more than a 100,000 people have been killed since the US-led invasion in October 2001.

The president of Afghanistan, foreign ministers of nearly twenty countries and the head of the United Nations are participating.

The group says it does not recognise the Afghan government and demands the removal of the US and other foreign troops in Afghanistan as a precondition for negotiations.