Taliban force peace convoy to halt and abduct members of peace movement

THE TALIBAN ambushed a peace convoy in western Afghanistan yesterday and abducted 26 members of a peace movement, a police spokesman said.

The insurgents staged the ambush in the district of Bala Buluk in Farah province on Tuesday.

The Taliban forced the sixvehicle convoy to a halt, then got into the cars and drove them and the activists to an unknown location, said provincial police spokesman Mohibullah Mohib.

According to Mr Mohib, a police operation is under way to locate and free the activists whose convoy was going from village to village to rally for peace.

However, Bismillah Watandost, of the People’s Peace Movement of Afghanistan, to which the activists belong, said 27 of their members were abducted by the Taliban in the Farah assault. The different figures could not immediately be reconciled. The Taliban, who have been active in Farah, have not claimed responsibility for the abductions.

However, Mr Watandost also said that tribal elders in the province immediately launched an effort to negotiate with the Taliban to release the abducted activists. He added that phone lines were down in the region, making communication and getting information from the area difficult.

The Taliban currently hold sway or control practically half of Afghanistan and are at their strongest since the 2001 US invasion. They continue to stage neardaily attacks targeting Afghan and US forces, as well as government officials – even as they hold peace talks with a US envoy tasked with negotiating an end to the 18-year conflict, America’s longest war.

The latest rallies by the activists from the People’s Peace Movement

of Afghanistan started on Friday, first in southern Helmand province, a Taliban heartland.

At a similar series of peace rallies in October, the Taliban abducted six activists from the movement in eastern Logar province but released them the same day.