Afghan government considering yet another Eid ceasefire with Taliban militants: Kabul

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani might offer the Taliban militant group another ceasefire during next month’s Eid holiday, a government spokesman says, after the Afghan leader reached a truce with Taliban insurgents last month.  

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani might offer the Taliban militant group another ceasefire during next month’s Eid holiday, a government spokesman says, after the Afghan leader reached a truce with Taliban insurgents last month.  

“There is the possibility that a ceasefire may be announced over Eid al-Qurban,” said Ghani’s main spokesman Haroon Chakansuri at a news conference in capital Kabul on Saturday, referring to Eid al-Adha (Feast of Sacrifice), an important festival on the Islamic calendar, which falls on August 22 this year.

He declined to comment further but said that more details would be announced later.

On June 9, Taliban announced in a statement that it had agreed to a week-long truce deal proposed by the Afghan government, saying that foreign forces would be excluded from the ceasefire and operations would resume against them.

Taliban militants themselves, however, announced a three-day truce of their own starting on June 15, saying on June 17 that they would not extend it, a day after Ghani announced the extension of the week-long period of truce with the militant group until an unspecified time. The three-day ceasefire was held on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr Muslim holidays.