Afghan President Ashraf Ghani offers Taliban power-sharing deal to end violence

KABUL: The Ashraf Ghani-led Afghanistan government on Thursday (August 12) has offered a share of power to the Taliban in a bid to stop the escalating violence in the war-torn country where the insurgent group has captured 10 provincial capitals so far, local media reported.

ARY News reported that the government had offered a power-sharing deal in which it has also asked the Taliban to end attacks on civilians.

The development came soon after Taliban spokesperson Qari Yousaf Ahmadi said the group had captured Ghazni city, the capital of the eponymous province in Afghanistan's southeast. 

The Afghanistan government, during the extended Troika meeting in Qatar's Doha has raised grave concerns over the Taliban's brutal attacks on cities, which have led to war crimes and blatant human rights violations and humanitarian catastrophe in the country, Afghan foreign ministry said.

The extended Doha Troika meeting, comprising the US, Russia, China, and Pakistan, was aimed at resuming meaningful intra-Afghan peace negotiations even as US-led foreign troops finalised their withdrawal from the region.