An advisor to President Ashraf Ghani said on Thursday at a Youth Day event that Taliban infiltrators and fighters have established a firm footprint in Kabul and many live as ordinary civilians.

Waheed Omar, Ghani’s Senior Advisor and Director General of the Office of Public and Strategic Affairs said sustainable peace is not expected to be gained through just a political agreement and in turn urged pro-government elements to lay the foundation for long-lasting peace and security.

“There are a lot of Taliban infiltrators in Kabul. They live like normal civilians, but they are infiltrators and forces of the Taliban,” said Omar at a conference in Kabul marking International Youth Day.

Abdullah Abdullah the Chairman of the High Council for National Reconciliation also sent a message to delegates attending the event and said: “Although there are threats against Afghanistan, the current opportunities must be used for peace.”

As momentum gathers over the possibility of intra-Afghan negotiations, critics have raised their voices over a number of issues relating to the way forward.

Nasrullah Arsalaei, former head of the Secretariat of the Council of Ministers said: “Peace efforts should not cost the achievements of the last two decades. Government and political institutions and structures should be preserved.”

Another critic was Sima Samar, State Minister for Human Rights and International Affairs. She said: “We are going to a short-term peace deal, through which we will not reach permanent peace.”

This comes as US-brokered intra-Afghan peace talks are scheduled to start in Doha next week.

However, the Afghan negotiating team, led by Mohammad Masoom Stanekzai, has not left Kabul for Doha.

The team was initially meant to leave on Wednesday but then their departure was delayed by a day. However, on Thursday the team had still not left.

This comes after concerns were raised on Wednesday that the journalists expected to travel to Doha with the negotiating team were denied visas for Qatar.

However, a source said Thursday this issue was being worked on.

Once talks start, representatives of a number of countries and international agencies are to remotely monitor the negotiations.