Karzai govt ready to bring former Taliban back to fold

Ludin was quick to add that this did not apply to those who formed the Taliban’s ‘‘core group’’. ‘‘Of course, there is no place for those who ordered killings or for those who were responsible for destroying the Bamiyan Buddhas.’’

With the Loya Jirga slated to accept the draft constitution — which has been under discussion for the past few months — Karzai and his team say Kabul’s policy has to be one of inclusiveness. They are quick to refute any suggestion that the Afghan Government is dealing with what some call the ‘‘Moderate Taliban’’.

According to Ludin, Taliban was a movement of ‘‘foreign elements’’ and was essentially ‘‘non-Afghan in character’’. When asked about the so-called Moderate Taliban, he said: ‘‘There was and there is nothing like Moderate Taliban. There was just the Taliban which no longer exists in Afghanistan.’’

The Karzai Government is of the view that the Afghans have been a fractured society apart from facing the ‘‘foreign enemy’’. The developments after 9/11 and the setting up of an Interim Administration under Karzai, they add, has generated much hope, which can only be sustained ‘‘inclusive politics’’.

Nearly 2.2 million Afghans, Ludin said, have returned to Afghanistan in the past two years. Over a million displaced Afghans have now returned while the population of Kabul itself has trebled.