Afghan public shows varied reaction towards Loya Jirga

While over 2,300 participants in a Loya Jirga or traditional grand assembly have been discussing a number of topics in Afghan capital Kabul, the war-weary Afghans have shown mixed reaction towards the decisions of the event expected to be announced on Saturday. "Having strategic relationship with the United States will not change the route of the war and would not encourage the Taliban insurgents to give up the fighting," a Kabul resident named Mohammad Samim said to Xinhua in a brief interview on Thursday. More than 2,300 participants including tribal elders, lawmakers and government functionaries have attended the four-day assembly, kicked off on Wednesday, to discuss the proposed strategic partnership with the United States as well as government-initiated peace talks with the Taliban and other armed opposition groups in the militancy-plagued country. Afghan president has recently said his government halts efforts to broker peace talks with the main anti-government militants -- the Taliban -- after a suicide bomber killed the former Afghan President and chief of country's High Peace Council in his Kabul house on mid September. "Yes, they are talking and discussing on a designed agreement of having partnership with the United States and would decide peace efforts, but these decision would bolster Taliban morale in fighting U.S. and NATO-led forces in Afghanistan," Samim added. "This on-going Loya Jirga is benefiting our country and personally I support it," Alam Khan a passerby in Kabul city, told Xinhua on Thursday. "There are many foreign troops in Afghanistan right now but their presence is questionable, and that legalizing this presence is a positive sign that at least the night raids by foreign forces and harming civilians will be decreased in Afghanistan," Khan, 50, went on to say. "I want this Jirga to approve strategic partnership with the United States, we are fed up of the war and interfering of neighboring countries and that this strategic agreement would eventually end the Taliban, who are killing innocent people and are the veritable arms of other countries of this region," Khan said. "Any decisions taken by the Loya Jirga participants would be respected and implemented," said Afghan President Hamid Karzai in his opening remark in the first day of the Jirga on Wednesday. The decisions, taken by the four-day Loya Jirga would be forwarded to the parliament for ratification, Karzai added. In a statement released to media, Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops described the Loya Jirga as a trick to legitimize the presence of foreign troops in Afghanistan and vowed to disrupt it. "Having strategic relations with the United States is in the benefit of Afghanistan, but we have preconditions in this regard. Our conditions are that the United States and NATO forces should stop searching Afghan houses and night operations, should halt having parallel establishments with the Afghan administration and should respect our national sovereignty from now on," Karzai said in his opening speech at the Loya Jirga on Wednesday. "Our relations with the United States should be based on equity and be a relation between two sovereign independent countries," Karzai told the audience in his hour-long speech. Despite a tight security in capital city of Kabul as Afghan army and police are deployed around the Polytechnic University campus where the Loya Jirga is being held and other sensitive spots and hilltops nearby, insurgent fired two rockets on the Jirga Thursday morning injuring at least one person. "At around 08:10 a.m. (0340 GMT) Thursday two round of rockets were fired from Pul-i-Hassan area south of Kabul city and landed in two different locations as a result one person was injured," the Kabul police said in a statement. However, hours after the rocket attack, spokesman of Interior Ministry Seddiq Seddiqui told local media that two suspects who carried the rockets and shot Thursday morning were detained in a joint operation launched by police, army and Afghan intelligence officers. The statement blamed the rocket attack on the enemies of peace and stability, a reference to Taliban insurgents who have threatened to disrupt the Loya Jirga. The Taliban outfit, which attacked a similar Jirga held in the same location to discuss the government-initiated national reconciliation and talks with the armed opposition groups in June 2010, has vowed to target and disrupt the Jirga.