Angry Kabul losing faith in peace process after Taliban bombing

After another bombing in the Afghan capital was followed by yet another triumphant claim of responsibility by the Taliban, Afghan leaders are struggling to find the will to make peace with the militant group. Even as the death toll rose to above 60 from the bombing, leaders are voicing frustration with diplomatic efforts, both regionally and internationally, to bring the insurgents to the negotiating table.

Nearly 350 people were injured in the deadliest attack in years, and the fear is that there may be more to come: it came just a week after the Taliban launched their annual fighting season, which has already seen co-ordinated attacks in several provinces.

The assault drew condemnation from world leaders, led by the United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who called it unjustifiable. In Afghanistan itself, an angry President Ashraf Ghani said “we will avenge every drop of our people’s blood” as he visited survivors in a military hospital. “There wasn’t a day where I and the people of Afghanistan have not raised the message of peace, but it is God’s order to stand strong against attacks,” he said, noticeably hardening his tone against the insurgents.

He also highlighted his frustration with the reconciliation process launched by a multinational group to woo the Taliban into the country’s mainstream. The four-country group comprised of the US, China, Pakistan and Afghanistan has been working on the diplomatic front since December. The Taliban have however rejected several calls to join the peace process and end a 15-year-old conflict that has raged since the US-led invasion in 2001. Security analyst Shahla Farid at Kabul University said there was no sign of the Taliban changing their position despite the occasional peaceful overture to the Afghan government.

“That [use of force] is the only way to deal with insurgents,” she said. “They have rejected peace offers many times and won’t accept them in future either.” In a sign of further frustration after the attack, this time directed towards Pakistan, Afghanistan’s Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah postponed a planned trip to Islamabad. The trip had been scheduled for next month, his spokesman Javid Faisal said.

Kabul has long accused the Pakistani intelligence agency of sheltering the Afghan Taliban and giving them support for attacks in Afghanistan. Faisal did not directly blame Pakistan but said the attack was planned outside Afghanistan. He urged the four-country grouping to fulfill their promise to push the Taliban to negotiations. Otherwise, he warned, Afghanistan would “respond to war with war.”