Hekmatyar Stresses on Plan of Creating ‘Safe Zones’ for Taliban

Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, the leader of Hezb-e-Islami on Saturday stressed on creating “safe zones” for the Taliban as part of a peace plan offered by him to the Afghan government.

Addressing a press conference in Kabul, Hekmatyar said that establishing safe regions to the Taliban did not mean to handover provinces to the militant group.  

 “In these [safe regions] the families of armed appositions will be settled. They will not be chased or come under air attack,” he said.

According to Hekmatyar, the so-called safe regions – will have new governance and independent security forces with the agreement of both sides involved in the ongoing war.

Hekmatyar said that his peace plan is on the table of President Ashraf Ghani and the U.S. president and that is yet to be fully accepted or rejected.

“A new administration should be established with no affiliation to the sides in involved the war. Security forces should be formed to ensure the stability of the region,” he suggested. 

Emphasizing on timely parliamentary elections, he urged inclusion of political parties in the election process.

“The government should provide the budget of the elections, if outsiders pay the cost of the elections, they will have preconditions and interference in the process,” Hekmatyar said.

This comes after the Afghan government proposed an unconditional peace offer to the Taliban as part of the efforts to bring the insurgent group to the negotiations table.