FM on regional tour, Interior minister on Pakistani Taliban

Pakistan's foreign minister on Monday urged the Taliban and other Afghan leaders to try to reach an understanding for an inclusive political settlement as soon as possible.

Shah Mahmood Qureshi issued the appeal Monday at a news conference ahead of his upcoming visit to several regional countries.

Qureshi also stressed the need for different Afghan ethnic groups across the country to be included in any political arrangement.

Qureshi will leave for Uzbekistan on Tuesday on a regional trip that will also include stops in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Iran to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. He said he had already spoken with officials in China by phone.

He said it was a good sign that the Taliban were already talking to some other Afghan leaders, including former president Hamid Karzai.

Qureshi said Pakistan will continue to play its role for a peaceful and politically negotiated solution of the Afghan issue.

Earlier on Monday, Pakistan’s interior minister said the Taliban has assured his country they will not allow the outlawed Pakistani Taliban - a separate militant group from the one in Afghanistan - to use Afghan soil for attacks against Pakistan.

Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said that his ministry has information that amid the Taliban sweep across Afghanistan, some of the leaders and members of the Pakistani Taliban, or Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, were freed from Afghan prisons.

Ahmed said Islamabad was in contact with the Taliban over the matter.

The Pakistani Taliban have claimed responsibility for several past attacks, including the 2014 deadly attack on a Peshawar school that killed 154 people, mostly school children.

Islamabad alleges the Pakistani Taliban have been hiding in Afghanistan for the past several years, after fleeing military operations launched against them inside Pakistan.