KABUL — Gunfire broke out and police reported a suicide bomb attack early today as President Hamid Karzai opened a national conference that was expected to endorse his plan to lure Taliban fighters off the battlefield with offers of indemnities and jobs.
A reporter heard five or six bursts of gunfire coming from the south of the conference venue, soon after Karzai completed his opening address in the tent where 1,600 delegates were gathered. Police said a suicide bomber detonated explosives a few hundred yards from the conference. More details had not been released.
The conference, known as a peace jirga, was dismissed before it started by Taliban leaders who threatened to kill anyone who attended.
About 10 minutes into his opening address, Karzai was briefly interrupted by an explosion outside, which police said was a rocket fired from the west of the Afghan capital.
A police officer, Abdullah, who goes by one name, said a rocket hit near Intercontinental hotel — which lies about 500 meters from the conference venue. There were no reported casualties.
Karzai heard the thud, but dismissed it, telling delegates, “Don’t worry. We’ve heard this kind of thing before.”
The lawmakers, tribal, provincial and religious leaders and other delegates invited by Karzai’s government were to hold talks for three days. The jirga — “large assembly” in Pashto — is a traditional Afghan gathering of leaders to hash out problems and issues.
Jirga for “foreigners”
On Tuesday, the Taliban said in a statement to news organizations that the jirga does not represent the Afghan people and was aimed at “securing the interest of foreigners.” It said the participants “are on the payroll of the invaders and work for their interests.”
To reinforce the message, a cassette recording was circulated last week by courier within the Taliban’s underground government, in which the chairman of the Taliban council, Mullah Abdul Ghani, warned that “the punishment for participating in the jirga is death.”
Information about the cassette was provided to The Associated Press by a Taliban member whose information has proved reliable for years.
Another major insurgent group, Hizb-i-Islami, led by ex-Prime Minister Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, called the conference “a useless exercise” because “only handpicked people” were invited.
Karzai is hoping the jirga will bolster him politically by supporting his strategy of offering incentives to individual Taliban fighters and reaching out to the insurgent leadership, despite skepticism in Washington that the time is right for an overture to militant leaders.
“This is a positive first step because everybody realizes war is not the solution,” said Hamid Gailani, a lawmaker from southern Afghanistan. “If there is no sound understanding and cooperation between the Afghan government and the coalition forces, then God save us all.”
Some members of ethnic minorities fear Karzai may be too eager to sell out their interests in hopes of cutting a deal with the Taliban.
