One of the notorious political traditions in Afghanistan is the involvement of outsiders by the political groups and players in the internal affairs of the country. After ten years of fighting against the Taliban militants, the government is making any effort possible to convince them to return to the fold. To this end, it has established the High Peace Council to proceed with the effort of reconciliation with Taliban and other insurgent groups.

The Taliban militants, announcing their spring offensive a few months ago, said that killing of the members of the Peace Council would be their top priority along with government officials and those who work with national and international organizations. Over the last few months, insurgents have been able to kill some high ranking officials and figures, including president Karzai's half brother and head of Kandahar provincial council, Ahmad Wali Karzai.

In the meanwhile, the militants have been attempting to expand their terrorist activities across the country as they were able to strike the relatively peaceful city of Herat in late May of this year. But the government and High Peace Council have continued to talk of contacts and progresses in reconciliation with the Taliban and other insurgent groups. Yesterday, Pajhwok Afghan News reported said that the head of High Peace Council has tipped Abu Anis, a Palestinian citizen as the council's representative for Europe.

He is said to be the son-in-law of Abdullah Yusuf Aazzam, a highly influential Palestinian Islamic scholar, who preached in favor of Afghan Mujahideen against the Soviet invaders. It is to be mentioned that these sorts of things could raise further doubts about the transparency and effectiveness of the process.

The ongoing efforts have, so far, been just confusing and are yet to yield any results to affect the lives of Afghan people. Afghan people do not know what is going on behind the scene but they are just giving the sacrifices in the terrorist attacks that are carried out by the Taliban and their allies on a day-to-day basis in various provinces. In fact, the people live in a world of confusion created by Afghan government and a cruel environment of violence and killing created by the Taliban and other terrorist groups operating in Afghanistan.