Kabul on lockdown as assembly discusses peace with Taliban

Kabul

Afghanistan’s usually bustling capital Kabul slowed to a crawl Tuesday amid massive security for a high-stakes peace summit that has previously been a target for insurgent attacks.
Police flooded the city and authorities blocked off key roads around the venue of the so-called “loya jirga” — where some 3,000 tribal elders, religious figures, and politicians from across Afghanistan are gathering over four days to discuss possible conditions for a peace deal with the Taliban.
Taliban suicide bombers armed with rockets and guns attacked a 2010 peace jirga at the same venue, and in 2011, two rockets were fired into Kabul during a two-day jirga.
Despite such past attacks, Kabul residents are infuriated with the scale of the lockdown, which has already been blamed for at least one death and has paralysed businesses in what would ordinarily be a busy week before Ramadan begins.
Local media reported that a newborn baby died when the father, who was trying to take the infant to a hospital, was blocked by security forces. Adding to the slowdown, authorities have declared a week-long public holiday in Kabul.
“Yesterday, I could only take two passengers from one part of the city to the other. It took me three hours to complete a 15-minute ride,” Nasrullah, a taxi driver who gave only his first name, told AFP.
“Afghanistan is a developing country and its economic engine should be running all day,” he said. “A week-long shutdown is like a poison to the economy.”
The loya jirga — literally “grand assembly” in Pashto — is being held as the US and Taliban are discussing a possible foreign troop withdrawal from Afghanistan in exchange for a permanent ceasefire and various Taliban pledges.— AFP

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from Pakistan Observer http://bit.ly/2DExQFC