Zakhilwal says Samiul Haq has responsibility to end Afghan conflict

> Afghan ambassador Omar Zakhilwal has visited the socalled ‘University of Jihad’ so often that he’s become good friends with the hardline cleric who runs it. > His unusual pilgrimage to the Darul Uloom Haqqania, near Peshawar, is central to his efforts to convince the Taleban-supporting school to preach peace. > The diplomat stressed in three separate visits since December that the influential preacher Maulana Samiul Haq had a responsibility to end a conflict that is killing innocent Muslims.

> America’s longest war is destabilising South Asia and costing Washington roughly $23 billion per year. > The conflict holding back economic growth in Pakistan, the region’s second-largest economy.